Simulations of $ SU(2) $ lattice gauge theory with dynamical reduced staggered fermions

TL;DR

This paper presents simulations of SU(2) lattice gauge theory with dynamical reduced staggered fermions, revealing a condensate that breaks a global symmetry at strong coupling, using the RHMC algorithm.

Contribution

It demonstrates the feasibility of simulating SU(2) gauge theory with reduced staggered fermions without a sign problem and explores symmetry breaking phenomena.

Findings

No sign problem in fundamental representation simulations

Condensate forms at strong coupling

Spontaneous breaking of a global U(1) symmetry

Abstract

We simulate $ SU(2) $ lattice gauge theory using dynamical reduced staggered fermions. The latter lead to two rather than four Dirac fermions in the continuum limit. We review the derivation and properties of reduced staggered fermions and show that in the case of fields in the fundamental representation of $SU(2)$ the theory does not exhibit a sign problem and can be simulated using the RHMC algorithm. We present results on lattices up to $16^4$ for a wide range of bare fermion masses. We find a single site condensate appears at strong coupling that spontaneously breaks the one global $U(1)$ symmetry remaining in the reduced fermion action.