Robert Lacaze

We compare the efficiency of four different algorithms to compute the overlap Dirac operator, both for the speed, i.e., time required to reach a desired numerical accuracy, and for the adaptability, i.e., the scaling of speed with the condition number of the (square of the) Wilson Dirac operator. Although orthogonal polynomial expansions give good speeds at moderate condition number, they are highly non-adaptable. One of the rational function expansions, the Zolotarev approximation, is the fastest and is adaptable. The conjugate gradient approximation is adaptable, self-tuning, and nearly as fast as the ZA.

We study physics at temperatures just above the QCD phase transition (Tc) using chiral (overlap) Fermions in the quenched approximation of lattice QCD. Exact zero modes of the overlap Dirac operator are localized and their frequency of occurrence drops with temperature. This is closely related to axial U(1) symmetry, which remains broken up to 2Tc. After subtracting the effects of these zero modes, chiral symmetry is restored, as indicated by the behavior of the chiral condensate. The pseudoscalar and vector screening masses are close to ideal gas values.

We present an investigation of the 2D attractive Hubbard model, considered as an effective model relevant to superconductivity in strongly interacting electron systems. We use both hybrid Monte Carlo simulations and existing hopping parameter expansions to explore the low temperature domain. The increaseof the static S-wave pair correlation with decreasing temperature is analyzed in terms of an expected Kosterlitz-Thouless superconducting transition. The evidence for this transition is weak: If it exists, its temperature is very low and depends weakly on the band filling near half filling. The number of unpaired electrons remains nearly constant with temperature at fixed attractive potential strength. In contrast, the static magnetic susceptibility decreases fast with temperature, and cannot be related only to pair formation. We introduce a method by which the Pade approximants of the existing series for the susceptibility give sensible results down to rather low temperature region, as shown by comparison with our numerical data.