Flavor symmetry breaking and scaling for improved staggered actions in quenched QCD

Abstract

We present a study of the flavor symmetry breaking in the pion spectrum for various improved staggered fermion actions. To study the effects of link fattening and tadpole improvement, we use three different variants of the p4 action - p4fat3, p4fat7, and p4fat7tad. These are compared to Asqtad and also to naive staggered. To study the pattern of symmetry breaking, we measure all 15 meson masses in the 4-flavor staggered theory. The measurements are done on a quenched gauge background, generated using a one-loop improved Symanzik action with $\beta =10/g^2=7.40,7.75,$ and 8.00, corresponding to lattice spacings of approximately a = .31 fm., .21 fm., and .14 fm. We also study how the lattice scale set by the $\rho$ mass on each of these ensembles compares to one set by the static quark potential.

18 pages, 6 figures

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• The order of the quantum chromodynamics transition predicted by the standard model of particle physics
• The QCD transition temperature: results with physical masses in the continuum limit
• The transition temperature in QCD
• Study of the finite temperature transition in 3-flavor QCD using the R and RHMC algorithms

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Taste symmetry breaking with HYP-smeared staggered fermions