Improved Hamiltonian for Minkowski Yang-Mills Theory

Abstract

I develop an improved Hamiltonian for classical, Minkowski Yang-Mills theory, which evolves infrared fields with corrections from lattice spacing $a$ beginning at $O(a^4)$. I use it to investigate the response of Chern-Simons number to a chemical potential, and to compute the maximal Lyapunov exponent. Both quantities have small $a$ limits, in both cases within $10\% $ of the limit found using the unimproved (Kogut Susskind) Hamiltonian. For the maximal Lyapunov exponent the limits differ by about $5 \% $, significant at about $5 σ$, indicating that while a small $a$ limit exists, its value is corrupted by lattice artefacts. For the response of Chern-Simons number the statistics are not good enough to resolve $ 5 \% $ differences, but it seems possible in analogy with the Lyapunov exponent that the final answer depends on the lattice regulation.