Topology via Spectral Projectors with Staggered Fermions

TL;DR

This paper extends the spectral projectors method for defining topological susceptibility from Wilson to staggered fermions and tests it in pure gauge theory, also generalizing to higher-order cumulants.

Contribution

It introduces a new definition of topological susceptibility for staggered fermions and extends the spectral projectors method to higher-order cumulants.

Findings

Successfully defines staggered topological susceptibility.

Tests show consistency with theoretical expectations.

Generalizes method to higher-order cumulants.

Abstract

The spectral projectors method is a way to obtain a theoretically well posed definition of the topological susceptibility on the lattice. Up to now this method has been defined and applied only to Wilson fermions. The goal of this work is to extend the method to staggered fermions, giving a definition for the staggered topological susceptibility and testing it in the pure $SU(3)$ gauge theory. Besides, we also generalize the method to higher-order cumulants of the topological charge distribution.