Modified Lattice Landau Gauge

Abstract

We propose a modified lattice Landau gauge based on stereographically projecting the link variables on the circle S^1 -> R for compact U(1) or the 3-sphere S^3 -> R^3 for SU(2) before imposing the Landau gauge condition. This can reduce the number of Gribov copies exponentially and solves the Gribov problem in compact U(1) where it is a lattice artifact. Applied to the maximal Abelian subgroup this might be just enough to avoid the perfect cancellation amongst the Gribov copies in a lattice BRST formulation for SU(N), and thus to avoid the Neuberger 0/0 problem. The continuum limit of the Landau gauge remains unchanged.