This thesis details a study of the vacuum structure of QCD using the tool of lattice gauge theory. Chapter 1 gives an introduction to path integrals, semi-classical approximations to path integrals, instantons, topological charge and instanton phenomenology. Chapter 2 introduces lattice gauge theory and the problems of studying topological charge on the lattice. The cooling method and its pitfalls are discussed and details are given of a study undertaken of under-relaxed cooling. In Chapter 3 the algorithms that were developed to study the instantons on the cooled configurations are discussed. Chapter 4 gives the results for the structure of the vacuum: size distributions, spatial distributions, correlations between charges, and scaling of distributions with the lattice spacing. Chapter 5 discusses an exploratory study of the low-lying eigenmodes of the Wilson-Dirac operator. The zero-modes of both the unimproved and improved operators on cold and heated instantons are calculated and the lattice artefacts investigated. Chapter 6 contains my conclusions and suggestions for future work.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:662153 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Smith, Douglas Andrew |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/11413 |
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