Overlap fermions are particularly well suited to study the finite temperature dynamics of the chiral symmetry restoration transition of QCD, which might be just an analytic crossover. Using gauge field configurations on a 24^3x10 lattice with N_f=2 f
lavours of dynamical Wilson-clover quarks generated by the DIK collaboration, we compute the lowest 50 eigenmodes of the overlap Dirac operator and try to locate the transition by fermionic means. We analyse the spectral density, local chirality and localisation properties of the low-lying modes and illustrate the changing topological and (anti-) selfdual structure of the underlying gauge fields across the transition.
Overlap fermions have an exact chiral symmetry on the lattice and are thus an appropriate tool for investigating the chiral and topological structure of the QCD vacuum. We study various chiral and topological aspects of quenched gauge field configura
tions. This includes the localization and chiral properties of the eigenmodes, the local structure of the ultraviolet filtered field strength tensor, as well as the structure of topological charge fluctuations. We conclude that the vacuum has a multifractal structure.
