Spectral Projectors Method for Staggered Fermions

Abstract

We extend the spectral projectors method to staggered fermions. Applying the index theorem to the staggered Dirac operator it is possible to work out an expression for the topological susceptibility which depends only on the orthogonal projectors on quasi zero-modes, as it has already been done for Dirac-Wilson fermions. Besides, we generalize this method deriving analogous expressions for all higher-order coefficients in the $\theta$-expansion of the vacuum energy.