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We construct neural networks that work for any Lie group and maintain gauge covariance, enabling smooth, invertible gauge field transformations. We implement these transformations for 4D SU(3) lattice gauge fields and explore their use in HMC. We focus on developing loss functions and optimizing the transformations. We show the effects on HMC's molecular dynamics and discuss the scalability of the approach., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, The 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31st - August 4th, 2023, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

We present a trainable framework for efficiently generating gauge configurations, and discuss ongoing work in this direction. In particular, we consider the problem of sampling configurations from a 4D $SU(3)$ lattice gauge theory, and consider a generalized leapfrog integrator in the molecular dynamics update that can be trained to improve sampling efficiency. Code is available online at https://github.com/saforem2/l2hmc-qcd.

We present non-perturbative lattice calculations of the low-lying meson and baryon spectrum of the SU(4) gauge theory with fundamental fermion constituents. This theory is one instance of stealth dark matter, a class of strongly coupled theories, where the lowest mass stable baryon is the dark matter candidate. This work constitutes the first milestone in the program to study stealth dark matter self-interactions. Here, we focus on reducing excited state contamination in the single baryon channel by applying the Laplacian Heaviside method, as well as projecting our baryon operators onto the irreducible representations of the octahedral group. We compare our resulting spectrum to previous work involving Gaussian smeared non-projected operators and find good agreement with reduced statistical uncertainties. We also present the spectrum of the low-lying odd-parity baryons for the first time., Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures

Contribution from the USQCD Collaboration to the Proceedings of the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021)., Comment: 27 pp. main text, 4 pp. appendices, 29 pp. references, 1 p. index

We study the effects of discretization on the U(1) symmetric XY model in two dimensions using the Higher Order Tensor Renormalization Group (HOTRG) approach. Regarding the $Z_N$ symmetric clock models as specific discretizations of the XY model, we compare those discretizations to ones from truncations of the tensor network formulation of the XY model based on a character expansion, and focus on the differences in their phase structure at low temperatures. We also divide the tensor network formulations into core and interaction tensors and show that the core tensor has the dominant influence on the phase structure. Lastly, we examine a perturbed form of the XY model that continuously interpolates between the XY and clock models. We examine the behavior of the additional phase transition caused by the perturbation as the magnitude of perturbation is taken to zero. We find that this additional transition has a non-zero critical temperature as the perturbation vanishes, suggesting that even small perturbations can have a significant effect on the phase structure of the theory., Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures

There is great potential to apply machine learning in the area of numerical lattice quantum field theory, but full exploitation of that potential will require new strategies. In this white paper for the Snowmass community planning process, we discuss the unique requirements of machine learning for lattice quantum field theory research and outline what is needed to enable exploration and deployment of this approach in the future., Comment: 10 pages, contribution to Snowmass 2022

We propose a generic construction of Lie group agnostic and gauge covariant neural networks, and introduce constraints to make the neural networks continuous differentiable and invertible. We combine such neural networks and build gauge field transformations that is suitable for Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC). We use HMC to sample lattice gauge configurations in the transformed space by the neural network parameterized gauge field transformations. Tested with 2D U(1) pure gauge systems at a range of couplings and lattice sizes, compared with direct HMC sampling, the neural network transformed HMC (NTHMC) generates Markov chains of gauge configurations with improved tunneling of topological charges, while allowing less force calculations as the lattice coupling increases., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE2021), 26th-30th July, 2021, Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (v2 fixes labels in figure 4 and 5)

We propose using Normalizing Flows as a trainable kernel within the molecular dynamics update of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC). By learning (invertible) transformations that simplify our dynamics, we can outperform traditional methods at generating independent configurations. We show that, using a carefully constructed network architecture, our approach can be easily scaled to large lattice volumes with minimal retraining effort. The source code for our implementation is publicly available online at https://github.com/nftqcd/fthmc., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, presented at The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE2021 26th-30th July, 2021 Zoom/Gather @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology

We introduce LeapfrogLayers, an invertible neural network architecture that can be trained to efficiently sample the topology of a 2D $U(1)$ lattice gauge theory. We show an improvement in the integrated autocorrelation time of the topological charge when compared with traditional HMC, and look at how different quantities transform under our model. Our implementation is open source, and is publicly available on github at https://github.com/saforem2/l2hmc-qcd., Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, presented at the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE2021 26th-30th July, 2021, Zoom/Gather @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology

We generalize the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm with a stack of neural network layers and evaluate its ability to sample from different topologies in a two dimensional lattice gauge theory. We demonstrate that our model is able to successfully mix between modes of different topologies, significantly reducing the computational cost required to generated independent gauge field configurations. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/saforem2/l2hmc-qcd ., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Published as a workshop paper at ICLR 2021 SimDL Workshop

Composite Higgs models must exhibit very different dynamics from quantum chromodynamics (QCD) regardless whether they describe the Higgs boson as a dilatonlike state or a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. Large separation of scales and large anomalous dimensions are frequently desired by phenomenological models. Mass-split systems are well-suited for composite Higgs models because they are governed by a conformal fixed point in the ultraviolet but are chirally broken in the infrared. In this work we use lattice field theory calculations with domain wall fermions to investigate a system with four light and six heavy flavors. We demonstrate how a nearby conformal fixed point affects the properties of the four light flavors that exhibit chiral symmetry breaking in the infrared. Specifically we describe hyperscaling of dimensionful physical quantities and determine the corresponding anomalous mass dimension. We obtain $y_m=1+\gamma^*= 1.47(5)$ suggesting that $N_f=10$ lies inside the conformal window. Comparing the low energy spectrum to predictions of dilaton chiral perturbation theory, we observe excellent agreement which supports the expectation that the 4+6 mass-split system exhibits near-conformal dynamics with a relatively light $0^{++}$ isosinglet scalar., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, v2 version published in Phys. Rev. D

We present a modification of the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm for tackling the critical slowing down of generating Markov chains of lattice gauge configurations towards the continuum limit. We propose a new method to exchange information within an ensemble of Markov chains, and use it to construct an approximate inverse Hessian matrix of the action inspired from quasi-Newton algorithms for optimization. The kinetic term of the molecular dynamics evolution includes the approximate Hessian for long distance couplings among the momenta. We show the result of applying the new algorithm to the $U(1)$ gauge theory in two dimensions, and discuss our future plans., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 36th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2018), 22-28 July 2018, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan USA

We present our lattice studies of SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f$ = 8 degenerate fermions in the fundamental representation. Using nHYP-smeared staggered fermions we study finite-temperature transitions on lattice volumes as large as $L^3 \times N_t = 48^3 \times 24$, and the zero-temperature composite spectrum on lattice volumes up to $64^3 \times 128$. The spectrum indirectly indicates spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, but finite-temperature transitions with fixed $N_t \leq 24$ enter a strongly coupled lattice phase as the fermion mass decreases, which prevents a direct confirmation of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the chiral limit. In addition to the connected spectrum we focus on the lightest flavor-singlet scalar particle. We find it to be degenerate with the pseudo-Goldstone states down to the lightest masses reached so far by non-perturbative lattice calculations. Using the same lattice approach, we study the behavior of the composite spectrum when the number of light fermions is changed from eight to four. A heavy flavor-singlet scalar in the 4-flavor theory affirms the contrast between QCD-like dynamics and the low-energy behavior of the 8-flavor theory., Comment: 31 pages, 36 figures, 8 tables. v2: update to published version

We study the critical point for finite temperature Nf=3 QCD using several temporal lattice sizes up to 10. In the study, the Iwasaki gauge action and non-perturbatively O(a) improved Wilson fermions are employed. We estimate the critical temperature and the upper bound of the critical pseudo-scalar meson mass., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, talk presented at the 35th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 18-24 June 2017, Granada, Spain

We study the finite temperature phase structure for three-flavor QCD with a focus on locating the critical point which separates crossover and first order phase transition region in the chiral regime of the Columbia plot. In this study, we employ the Iwasaki gauge action and the non-perturvatively O($a$) improved Wilson-Clover fermion action. We discuss the finite size scaling analysis including the mixing of magnetization-like and energy-like observables. We carry out the continuum extrapolation of the critical point using newly generated data at $N_{\rm t}=8$, $10$ and estimate the upper bound of the critical pseudo-scalar meson mass $m_{\rm PS,E} \lesssim 170 {\rm MeV}$ and the critical temperature $T_{\rm E}=134(3){\rm MeV}$. Our estimate of the upper bound is derived from the existence of the critical point as an edge of the 1st order phase transition while that of the staggered-type fermions is based on its absence., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

We present an update of the finite temperature phase structure analysis for three flavor QCD. In the study the Iwasaki gauge action and non-perturvatively O($a$) improved Wilson-Clover fermion action are employed. We discuss finite size scaling analysis including mixings of magnetization-like and energy-like observables. Preliminary results are shown of the continuum limit of the critical point using newly generated data at Nt=8,10, including estimates of the critical pseudo-scalar meson mass and critical temperature., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, presented at the 34th annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice2016), 24-30 July 2016, University of Southampton, UK

We present a new software framework for simulating lattice field theories. It features an intuitive programming interface, while simultaneously achieving high performance supercomputing, all in one programming language, Nim. With a macro system based on its abstract syntax tree, the language enables us to check and optimize our code at compile time. It also allows us to code intrinsics that map directly to machine instructions, and generates efficient native code. We show how we use Nim's metaprogramming features in our code, and present the current status of the code and future plans., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figures, presented at the 38th International Conference on High Energy Physics, August 3 - 10, 2016, Chicago

We present results for the spectrum of a strongly interacting SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f = 8$ light fermions in the fundamental representation. Carrying out non-perturbative lattice calculations at the lightest masses and largest volumes considered to date, we confirm the existence of a remarkably light singlet scalar particle. We explore the rich resonance spectrum of the 8-flavor theory in the context of the search for new physics beyond the standard model at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Connecting our results to models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking, we estimate the vector resonance mass to be about 2 TeV with a width of roughly 450 GeV, and predict additional resonances with masses below ~3 TeV., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Added report number. Version submitted to journal

We investigate the phase structure of 3-flavor QCD in the presence of finite quark chemical potential by using Wilson-Clover fermions. To deal with the complex action with finite density, we adopt the phase reweighting method. In order to survey a wide parameter region, we employ the multi-parameter reweighting method as well as the multi-ensemble reweighting method. Especially, we focus on locating the critical end point that characterizes the phase structure. It is estimated by the kurtosis intersection method for the quark condensate. For Wilson-type fermions, the correspondence between bare parameters and physical parameters is indirect, thus we present a strategy to transfer the bare parameter phase structure to the physical one. We conclude that the curvature with respect to the chemical potential is positive. This implies that, if one starts from a quark mass in the region of crossover at zero chemical potential, one would encounter a first-order phase transition when one raises the chemical potential., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, The 33rd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory 14-18 July 2015, Kobe ,Japan

We investigate the phase structure of three-flavor QCD in the presence of finite quark chemical potential $\mu/T\lesssim1.2$ by using the non-perturbatively $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermion action on lattices with a fixed temporal extent $N_{\rm t}=6$ and varied spatial linear extents $N_{\rm s}=8,10,12$. Especially, we focus on locating the critical end point that characterizes the phase structure, and extracting the curvature of the critical line on the $\mu$-$m_{\pi}$ plane. For Wilson-type fermions, the correspondence between bare parameters and physical parameters is indirect. Hence we present a strategy to transfer the bare parameter phase structure to the physical one, in order to obtain the curvature. Our conclusion is that the curvature is positive. This implies that, if one starts from a quark mass in the region of crossover at zero chemical potential, one would encounter a first-order phase transition when one raises the chemical potential., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures

We calculate the spin-independent scattering cross section for direct detection that results from the electromagnetic polarizability of a composite scalar baryon dark matter candidate -- "Stealth Dark Matter", that is based on a dark SU(4) confining gauge theory. In the nonrelativistic limit, electromagnetic polarizability proceeds through a dimension-7 interaction leading to a very small scattering cross section for dark matter with weak scale masses. This represents a lower bound on the scattering cross section for composite dark matter theories with electromagnetically charged constituents. We carry out lattice calculations of the polarizability for the lightest baryons in SU(3) and SU(4) gauge theories using the background field method on quenched configurations. We find the polarizabilities of SU(3) and SU(4) to be comparable (within about 50%) normalized to the baryon mass, which is suggestive for extensions to larger SU(N) groups. The resulting scattering cross sections with a xenon target are shown to be potentially detectable in the dark matter mass range of about 200-700 GeV, where the lower bound is from the existing LUX constraint while the upper bound is the coherent neutrino background. Significant uncertainties in the cross section remain due to the more complicated interaction of the polarizablity operator with nuclear structure, however the steep dependence on the dark matter mass, $1/m_B^6$, suggests the observable dark matter mass range is not appreciably modified. We briefly highlight collider searches for the mesons in the theory as well as the indirect astrophysical effects that may also provide excellent probes of stealth dark matter., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, citations added, typos fixed, minor clarifications

We present a new model of "Stealth Dark Matter": a composite baryonic scalar of an $SU(N_D)$ strongly-coupled theory with even $N_D \geq 4$. All mass scales are technically natural, and dark matter stability is automatic without imposing an additional discrete or global symmetry. Constituent fermions transform in vector-like representations of the electroweak group that permit both electroweak-breaking and electroweak-preserving mass terms. This gives a tunable coupling of stealth dark matter to the Higgs boson independent of the dark matter mass itself. We specialize to $SU(4)$, and investigate the constraints on the model from dark meson decay, electroweak precision measurements, basic collider limits, and spin-independent direct detection scattering through Higgs exchange. We exploit our earlier lattice simulations that determined the composite spectrum as well as the effective Higgs coupling of stealth dark matter in order to place bounds from direct detection, excluding constituent fermions with dominantly electroweak-breaking masses. A lower bound on the dark baryon mass $m_B \gtrsim 300$ GeV is obtained from the indirect requirement that the lightest dark meson not be observable at LEP II. We briefly survey some intriguing properties of stealth dark matter that are worthy of future study, including: collider studies of dark meson production and decay; indirect detection signals from annihilation; relic abundance estimates for both symmetric and asymmetric mechanisms; and direct detection through electromagnetic polarizability, a detailed study of which will appear in a companion paper., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, citations added, typos fixed, minor clarifications

We investigate screening masses at both sides of the first order finite temperature transition with 3 quark flavors using the nonperturbatively improved clover fermion action and the Iwasaki gauge action. We have developed the method of hierarchical truncations with stochastic probing to accelerate the noise estimator for evaluating quark loops at every spatial lattice slices. At parameter values we study, the flavor singlet scalar meson has a screening mass about half of the pion screening mass. It becomes lighter as the system approaches the critical endpoint., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, and 3 tables, presented at the 32nd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE2014), 23-28 June, 2014, Columbia University New York, NY

We investigate the critical endpoint of finite temperature phase transition of $N_f=3$ QCD at zero chemical potential. We employ the renormalization-group improved Iwasaki gauge action and non-perturbatively $O(a)$-improved Wilson-clover fermion action. The critical endpoint is determined by using the intersection point of kurtosis for the temporal size $N_t$=4, 6, 8. Spatial sizes of $N_l$=6-16 ($N_t$=4), 10-24 ($N_t$=6), and 12-24 ($N_t$=8) are employed. We find that $N_t$=4 is out of the scaling region. Using results for $N_t$=6 and 8, and making linear extrapolations in $1/N_t^2$, we obtain $\sqrt{t_0}T_{\rm E}=0.0975(14)(8)$, $\sqrt{t_0}m_{\rm PS,E}=0.2254(52)(105)$ and $m_{\rm PS,E}/T_{\rm E}=2.311(63)(13)$, where the first error is statistical error, the second error is systematic error, and $m_{\rm PS}$ is the pseudo scalar meson mass. If one uses $1/\sqrt{t_0}=1.347(30)$ GeV reported by Borsanyi et al., one finds $T_{\rm E}=131(2)(1)(3)$ MeV, $m_{\rm PS,E}=304(7)(14)(7)$ MeV and $m_{\rm PS,E}/m_{\rm PS,E}^{\rm phys, sym}=0.739(17)(34)(17)$, where the third error comes from error of $\sqrt{t_0}$ and $m_{\rm PS}^{\rm phys, sym}=\sqrt{(m_\pi^2+2m_K^2)/3}$. Our current estimation of $\sqrt{t_0}m_{\rm PS,E}$ in the continuum limit is about 25% smaller than the SU(3) symmetric point., Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures

We investigate the phase structure of 3-flavor QCD in the presence of finite quark chemical potential $a\mu=0.1$ by using the Wilson-Clover fermion action. Especially, we focus on locating the critical end point that characterizes the phase structure. We do this by the kurtosis intersection method for the quark condensate. For Wilson-type fermions, the correspondence between bare parameters and physical parameters is indirect. Hence we present a strategy to transfer the bare parameter phase structure to the physical one., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 32nd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory LATTICE 2014, June 23 - 28, 2014, New York, USA

Partition function zeros steer the critical behavior of a system. Studying four-flavor lattice QCD at finite temperature and density with the Wilson-clover fermion action and the Iwasaki gauge action using a phase-quenched fermion determinant, we combine statistics from multiple chemical potentials to improve sampling of the configuration space, and aim at unraveling the movement of zeros in finite systems. Preparing for further investigations, we discuss methods and criteria used to sieve through complex parameter space spanned by $(\text{Re}\mu, \text{Im}\mu)$ and $(\text{Re}\mu, \text{Im}\beta)$, and present statistically robust zeros of the partition function., Comment: 7 pages, 1 table, and 8 figures, presented at the 31st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2013), 29 July - 3 August 2013, Mainz, Germany. Changes include: fix a typo and clarify the caption for Figure 1; clearly state estimating error for the number of independent configurations

We explore the phase space spanned by the temperature and the chemical potential for 4-flavor lattice QCD using the Wilson-clover quark action. In order to determine the order of the phase transition, we apply finite size scaling analyses to gluonic and quark observables including plaquette, Polyakov loop and quark number density, and examine their susceptibility, skewness, kurtosis and Challa-Landau-Binder cumulant. Simulations were carried out on lattices of a temporal size fixed at $N_{\text{t}}=4$ and spatial sizes chosen from $6^3$ up to $10^3$. Configurations were generated using the phase reweighting approach, while the value of the phase of the quark determinant were carefully monitored. The $\mu$-parameter reweighting technique is employed to precisely locate the point of the phase transition. Among various approximation schemes for calculating the ratio of quark determinants needed for $\mu$-reweighting, we found the Taylor expansion of the logarithm of the quark determinant to be the most reliable. Our finite-size analyses show that the transition is first order at $(\beta, \kappa, \mu/T)=(1.58, 0.1385, 0.584\pm 0.008)$ where $(m_\pi/m_\rho, T/m_\rho)=(0.822, 0.154)$. It weakens considerably at $(\beta, \kappa, \mu/T)=(1.60, 0.1371, 0.821\pm 0.008)$ where $(m_\pi/m_\rho, T/m_\rho)=(0.839, 0.150)$, and a crossover rather than a first order phase transition cannot be ruled out., Comment: 35 pages

With a substantial amount of simulations, we have explored the system across a wide range of lattice scales. We have located a lattice artifact, first order bulk transition, have studied its properties, and found that the flavor-singlet scalar meson mass vanishes at the critical endpoint. We will discuss the lattice phase diagrams and the continuum limits for both a spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking phase and an infrared conformal phase, and compare results with other groups., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; Contribution to SCGT12 "KMI-GCOE Workshop on Strong Coupling Gauge Theories in the LHC Perspective", 4-7 Dec. 2012, Nagoya University

We explore the phase diagram spanned by the temperature and the chemical potential for 4-flavor QCD by the phase-reweighting approach. In order to determine the order of phase transition, we perform finite size scaling studies for various quantities, for example, susceptibility, kurtosis and Challa-Landau-Binder cumulant. At the parameter (beta=1.60, kappa=0.1371, c_sw=1.9655 and N_T=4), where the Kentucky group reported a first-order phase transition in their canonical simulation, we observe that the transition is consistent with being of first order., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, June 24 - 29, 2012, Cairns, Australia

We report on new data from additional zero temperature simulations of QCD with 12 flavors. This is a continuation of previous studies using the DBW2 gauge action and naive staggered fermions. With the use of the force gradient integrator and a multiple-quark-mass preconditioned HMC, we have done simulations with input quark masses from $m_q=0.003$ to $m_q=0.008$. We have observed a metastable, first order, bulk transition that occurs at small input quark masses. As the quark mass increases, this first order bulk transition ends at a second order critical point, and, for still heavier quark masses, becomes the cross-over we have previously reported. We present measurements of hadron masses, decay constants and other low energy observables in the small quark mass region on the weak coupling side of the bulk transition. Our results show that the behavior of the system is still consistent with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. We also discuss a preliminary investigation into the behavior of the bulk transition itself. We have found that, as the system approaches the second order critical end point, the scalar singlet meson becomes lighter. Thus it appears that the critical endpoint corresponds to a continuum limit theory only involving scalars and, following known triviality arguments, this is likely a free field theory. The presence of this critical endpoint could influence scaling of lattice observables in the conventional continuum limit., Comment: 7 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables. Contribution to the XXIX International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 10-16, 2011, Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe, California

As part of our ongoing investigations of QCD with many flavors of quarks, here we report on studies of the finite temperature phase transition for eight-flavor QCD with the DBW2 gauge action and na\"ive staggered fermions. We find a clear first order phase transition between the chirally asymmetric phase at zero temperature and the chirally symmetric phase at finite temperature, signaled by a two-state signal for $\langle\bar{\psi}\psi\rangle$ at a non-zero temperature. We see this signal at a gauge coupling of $\beta=0.54$, where, to set the scale, the zero temperature value for $f_\pi$, in the chiral limit, is 0.06661(92). This strong, first-order signal is seen for two different values of the quark mass, $m_q=0.007$ and 0.0195, at $N_\tau=8$ and 6 respectively. Using $f_\pi(m_q)$ as the scale, the critical temperature is measured to be $T_c/f_\pi=1.638(93)$ at $m_\pi/f_\pi=3.329(30)$ for $m_q=0.007$, and $T_c/f_\pi=1.779(27)$ at $m_\pi/f_\pi=4.093(15)$ for $m_q=0.0195$. At a weaker coupling $\beta=0.56$, where at zero temperature and in the chiral limit we find $f_\pi=0.0312(10)$, the first order signal becomes numerically invisible to us for the $N_\tau \leq 14$ lattices we have investigated so far., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, Talk presented at The XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE 2010 - Villasimius, Sardinia Italy / June 14-19, 2010

We compare extensive simulations of QCD with 8 and 12 flavors of degenerate quarks, using the DBW2 gauge action, naive staggered fermions, and the rational hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm. A variety of values of the coupling constant, quark mass, and lattice size have been used. Our data suggests that, as the bare coupling is decreased, a rapid cross-over, which dramatically changes the lattice scale, exists with both 8 and 12 flavors. The scale change across this cross-over is much larger with 12 flavors than it is with 8 flavors. All of the observables we have measured, in both the zero and finite temperature systems, are consistent with a chiral symmetry breaking phase for the zero temperature theory on the weak coupling side of the rapid cross-over., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Talk presented at The XXVII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE 2009 - Peking University, Beijing, China / July 26 - 31, 2009

We report on simulations of QCD with many flavors of degenerate quarks, the DBW2 gauge action and naive staggered fermions, using the rational hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm. We primarily focus on eight degenerate quark flavors where a variety of values of the coupling constant and quark mass have been used in the simulations. The scaling behavior of the hadron spectrum and the string tension of the heavy quark potential is studied, to probe whether the zero temperature, continuum limit of the theory breaks chiral symmetry., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Talk presented at The XXVI International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE 2008 - Williamsburg, Virginia, USA / July 14 - 19, 2008