Lattice Theory

This primer begins with a brief introduction to the main ideas underlying Effective Field Theory (EFT) and describes how nuclear forces are obtained from first principles by introducing a Euclidean space-time lattice for chiral EFT. It subsequently develops the related technical aspects by addressing the two-nucleon problem on the lattice and clarifying how it fixes the numerical values of the low-energy constants of chiral EFT. In turn, the spherical wall method is introduced and used to show how improved lattice actions render higher-order corrections perturbative. The book also presents Monte Carlo algorithms used in actual calculations.

Lattice gauge theory is a fairly young research area in Theoretical Particle Physics. It is of great promise as it offers the framework for an ab-initio treatment of the nonperturbative features of strong interactions. Ever since its adolescence the simulation of quantum chromodynamics has attracted the interest of numerical analysts and there is growing interdisciplinary engage­ ment between theoretical physicists and applied mathematicians to meet the grand challenges of this approach. This volume contains contributions of the interdisciplinary workshop "Nu­ merical Challenges in Lattice Quantum Chromo dynamics" that the Institute of Applied Computer Science (IAI) at Wuppertal University together with the Von-Neumann-Institute-for-Computing (NIC) organized in August 1999. The purpose of the workshop was to offer a platform for the exchange of key ideas between lattice QCD and numerical analysis communities. In this spirit leading experts from both fields have put emphasis to transcend the barriers between the disciplines. The meetings was focused on the following numerical bottleneck problems: A standard topic from the infancy of lattice QCD is the computation of Green's functions, the inverse of the Dirac operator. One has to solve huge sparse linear systems in the limit of small quark masses, corresponding to high condition numbers of the Dirac matrix. Closely related is the determination of flavor-singlet observables which came into focus during the last years.

This book provides an exposition of the algebraic aspects of the theory of lattice-ordered rings and lattice-ordered modules. All of the background material on rings, modules, and lattice-ordered groups necessary to make the work self-contained and accessible to a variety of readers is included.