# Topology in QCD

## 1 Introduction

Topology is important in QCD largely due to the way it influences the propagation of quarks. Here it is the zero-modes of $`i\overline{)}D`$ that are special; not the exact zero modes whose number per unit volume

$$\frac{\overline{|Q|}}{V}\frac{1}{\sqrt{V}}\stackrel{V\mathrm{}}{}0,$$
(1)   
but rather the (mixed) would-be zero modes that would have been exact zero-modes if their parent topological charges had been isolated. The total number of these is certainly $`V`$, if only from the small instantons whose density is calculable analytically. Lattice calculations find, in both SU(2) and SU(3), a substantial value for

$$\frac{Q^2}{V}(200MeV)^4\frac{1}{fm^4}$$
(2)   
and this suggests that alot of the topological charge density tends to cluster in lumps that are uncorrelated at larger distances – just like a ‘gas’ of instantons. So, for convenience, this is the language I shall use in this talk.

I will start with the aspect that is no doubt on the firmest theoretical ground: the large mass of the $`\eta ^{}`$  and the value  of the topological susceptibility $`\chi _tQ^2/V`$. I dwell on the quenched case because it provides one area in which the lattice calculations are in very good shape, even if there is not much new this year (probably because they are in such good shape …). I will then move onto the possible role of instantons in driving the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry . Here the exciting news is that we have finally got lattice fermions that are good enough to address this question realistically. More speculative is the influence of topology on hadrons . This provides a motivation for trying to extract the properties of the ‘gas’ of instantons in the vacuum. There has been some interesting new work on the latter during the past year. Finally I turn to the role of instantons in confinement. The usual view is that there is no such role. I will discuss a recent calculation that claims the opposite. This will be the one area where fermions don’t appear at all.

## 2 $`Q`$, $`\chi _t`$ and $`m_\eta ^{}`$

Instantons provide a resolution of the $`\eta ^{}`$ puzzle . The mass of the $`\eta ^{}`$ can be related to the strength of topological fluctuations :

$$\chi _t\frac{Q^2}{V}\frac{m_\eta ^{}^2f_\pi ^2}{2N_f}(180MeV)^4.$$
(3)   
This is to leading order in $`N_c`$ and so the value of $`\chi _t`$ is the quenched value. The practical application (i.e. $`MeV`$ units) assumes that $`N_c=3`$ is close to $`N_c=\mathrm{}`$ and this is also something that one needs to confirm.

Let me start with some reassuring comments about calculating the topological charge $`Q`$ of lattice gauge fields. We suppose the lattice spacing $`a`$ is very small. Consider topological charges which are localised within a core of radius $`\rho `$. For $`a\rho 0.5fm`$ these charges have an analytically calculable density, which turns out to be $`\rho ^6`$ for SU(3). Large scales, say $`\rho 0.5fm`$, are a non-perturbative problem. At the ultraviolet scale, $`\rho a`$, lattice artifacts may dominate. Now, the point to note is that during the Monte Carlo each step changes only one link matrix i.e. the fields within a volume $`\delta va^4`$. So the only way we can change the value of $`Q`$ is for the core of the topological charge to shrink over many Monte Carlo steps from say $`\rho 0.2fm`$ down to $`\rho a`$ and then within a hypercube and so out of the lattice. Now because the density $`\rho ^6`$, the region $`a\rho 0.1fm`$ (say) will normally (in our finite lattice volume of a couple of fermi) have no instantons at all. So as an instanton traverses this topological desert it will become very visible – particularly once $`\rho few\times a`$. At this point the core will stick out above the $`O(1/\beta )`$ UV fluctuations in both the action and the topological charge densities. Now, if we know when $`Q`$ changes then that is all we need to calculate $`Q^2`$ (in a long run); and we can calculate $`Q`$ e.g. by averaging over long sequences of configurations. Clearly the same argument applies to cooling, and because cooling rapidly dampens the UV fluctuations, the above scenario can work for modest $`a`$ with only a couple of cooling sweeps being performed on each Monte Carlo field in the sequence.

So as $`a0`$ we can certainly calculate $`Q`$ and $`Q^2`$ for lattice gauge fields. At finite-$`a`$ there will typically be $`O(a^2)`$ corrections whose size will depend on the method used. Note that things will be worse in SU(2) than in SU(3). In SU(2) the density of small instantons decreases only as $`\rho ^{7/3}`$: that is to say, the decoupling of the UV scale occurs much more slowly. Although one often starts with SU(2) calculations because they are much faster, I think that, for the above reason, this is a false economy.

I will now summarise a number of different calculations of $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }`$. If we use the usual form of the lattice topological charge 

$$Q_L=\frac{1}{32\pi ^2}\underset{x}{}\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }Tr\{U_{\mu \nu }(x)U_{\rho \sigma }(x)\}$$
(4)   
(then $`\pm \mu `$ etc. antisymmetrised) and if we average $`Q_L^2`$ over fields containing a topological charge $`Q`$ we obtain

$$\overline{Q_L^2}=Z^2(\beta )Q^2+\zeta (\beta ).$$
(5)   
These additive  and multiplicative  renormalisations can be either calculated analytically in powers of $`1/\beta `$, or numerically. (Note that although $`\zeta (\beta )`$ diverges as $`1/a^4`$, in practical calculations it is not much larger than $`Q^2`$ and so the ‘subtraction’ is under much better control than in the corresponding gluon condensate calculations.) Alternatively one can cool the fields, and then $`Z1`$, up to $`O(a^2/\rho ^2)`$ lattice corrections, and $`\zeta 0`$, after a couple of cools.

I now take a number of quite different lattice calculations (using only those with at least 3 $`\beta `$ values) and compare their continuum extrapolations. I extrapolate the dimensionless ratio $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }`$ ($`\sigma `$ = string tension)

$$\frac{\chi _t^{1/4}(a)}{\sqrt{\sigma }(a)}=\frac{\chi _t^{1/4}(0)}{\sqrt{\sigma }(0)}+ca^2\sigma $$
(6)   
using a common set of values for $`\sigma `$ (as listed in ) so that any differences are differences in the calculation of topology, not of the scale. I now list the SU(3) calculations I use, and the results of the corresponding continuum extrapolations.

$``$ SU(3)

Pisa Smeared version of $`Q_L(x)`$, calculated directly from Monte Carlo field average using eqn 5 ($`5.9\beta 6.1`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.464(23)`$

Boulder Algebraic lattice $`Q`$ on RG smoothed fields ($`5.85\beta 6.1`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.456(23)`$

Oxford $`Q_L`$ on cooled fields ($`5.7\beta 6.2`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.449(17)`$

UKQCD $`Q_L`$ on cooled fields ($`6.0\beta 6.4`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.448(50)`$

$``$ SU(2)

Pisa Smeared version of $`Q_L(x)`$, calculated directly from Monte Carlo field averages using eqn 5 ($`2.44\beta 2.57`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.480(23)`$

Boulder lattice $`Q`$ on RG mapped fields ( $`2.4\beta 2.6`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.528(21)`$

Oxford-Liverpool $`Q_L`$ on cooled fields ( $`2.2\beta 2.6`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.480(12)`$

Oxford blocked geometric $`Q`$ directly on Monte Carlo fields ($`2.3\beta 2.6`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.480(18)`$

Zurich version of $`Q_L`$ on improved-cooled fields ($`2.4\beta 2.6`$): $`\chi _t^{1/4}/\sqrt{\sigma }=0.501(45)`$

All these continuum limits are consistent with each other despite the wide variety of methods being used. They provide the following conservative estimates:

$$\frac{\chi _t^{1/4}}{\sqrt{\sigma }}=\{\begin{array}{cc}0.455\pm 0.015\hfill & SU(3)\hfill \\ 0.487\pm 0.012\hfill & SU(2)\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)   
We observe that the two values are close to each other suggesting that (for the pure gauge theory) SU(3) is indeed close to SU($`\mathrm{}`$). If we plug in the value $`\sqrt{\sigma }440\pm 38MeV`$ , then we find $`\chi _t^{1/4}=200\pm 18MeV`$ for SU(3). As we have seen this is roughly the density of topological fluctuations that is needed  to provide the $`\eta ^{}`$ with its observed mass.

One can of course also calculate $`\chi _t`$ for ‘full QCD’. We expect that $`Q^20`$ as $`m_q0`$, since the zero modes ensure that $`det`$$`i\overline{)}D`$=0 for $`Q0`$. In fact we know more: the anomalous Ward identities tell us that

$$\chi _t=\frac{m_\pi ^2f_\pi ^2}{n_f^2}+O(m_q^2)m_q$$
(8)   
if we are in the phase in which chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken. By contrast, in a chirally symmetric phase we expect $`\chi _tm_q^{n_f}`$, and, of course, in the quenched case $`\chi _tm_q^0`$. So we can test the lattice calculations against this relation. One has to be careful because the lattice spacing $`a`$ is both a function of $`\beta `$ and $`m_q`$. (For a large quark mass the running of the coupling will include the quark only for scales below $`O(1/m_q)`$.) So in testing eqn 8 we should express all the quantities in terms of some physical quantity that is not expected to vary strongly with $`m_q`$, e.g. $`r_0`$ or $`\sqrt{\sigma }`$. The ($`n_f=2`$) UKQCD calculations  reported at this meeting go one better by tuning $`\beta `$ with $`m_q`$ so that $`r_0/a`$ is independent of $`m_q`$. Such a calculation separates the $`m_q`$ dependence from any $`a`$ dependence. If one plots $`r_0^4\chi _t`$ versus $`r_0^2m_\pi ^2m_q`$ one finds  that the (three) points are consistent with eqn 8 but only if one decreases $`f_\pi `$ by about 20% from its physical value. That, I think, is pretty good. Less pretty are the large statistical errors. Despite the latter it is clear that the value of $`r_0^4\chi _t`$ has decreased from its quenched value and that a $`m_q^{n_f=2}`$ behaviour is excluded. This contrasts with the $`n_f=2`$ CP-PACS calculation  of $`\chi _t/\sigma ^2`$ which strangely finds no $`m_q`$ dependence at all. On the other hand the $`n_f=2`$ calculation of the Pisa group  does show some sign of a decrease as $`m_q0`$.

The meson that (perhaps) most directly reflects topological fluctuations is the $`\eta ^{}`$. CP-PACS has produced  a very nice calculation of $`m_\eta ^{}`$. This is a tough calculation because such flavour-singlet hadrons simultaneously need the statistics of glueball calculations and expensive quark propagators. CP-PACS do a direct calculation that finds $`m_\eta ^{}0`$ as $`m_q0`$, in contrast to the $`m_q`$ Goldstone behaviour one would expect if topological fluctuations were negligible. The value they obtain in the continuum chiral limit is $`m_\eta ^{}=863(86)MeV`$. This is for $`n_f=2`$ and $`n_c=3`$, so it is amusing to note that if we plug into eqn 3 the values $`n_f=2`$, $`f_\pi =93MeV`$ (since this should be insensitive to the strange quark) and $`\chi _t=(200MeV)^4`$ (the lattice value) then we obtain $`m_\eta ^{}860MeV`$ as our expectation. This is promising and I hope CP-PACS will pursue this calculation; perhaps in the direction  of explicitly showing that it is dominated by the lowest modes of $`i\overline{)}D`$. A related calculation has been performed by UKQCD ; and the Pisa group  has tried calculating the mass using correlators of the ($`\stackrel{}{p}=0`$) topological charge.

## 3 Chiral symmetry breaking

Let $`\rho (\lambda )`$ be the normalised spectral density of $`i\overline{)}D[A]`$ averaged over gauge fields. Then we can express the chiral condensate as

$`\overline{\psi }\psi `$ $`=`$ $`\underset{m0}{lim}\underset{V\mathrm{}}{lim}\overline{\psi }\psi _{m,V}`$ (9)   
$`=`$ $`\underset{m0}{lim}\underset{V\mathrm{}}{lim}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{2m\rho (\lambda ,m)}{\lambda ^2+m^2}}𝑑\lambda `$   
$`=`$ $`\pi \rho (0)`$   
So chiral symmetry breaking requires a non-zero density of modes at $`\lambda =0`$. Now if we remove all interactions, then each (anti)instanton has a zero-mode and so $`\rho (\lambda )\delta (\lambda )`$. Interactions will spread these modes away from zero: however instantons are clearly a good first guess if what you want is $`\rho (0)0`$. Contrast it with the non-interacting limit of the perturbative vacuum – the free theory – where $`\rho (\lambda )\lambda ^3`$.

This idea, that instantons might drive chiral symmetry breaking, is an old one . There have been lattice calculations to test this idea, for example . The calculations in , with staggered fermions in the pure gauge SU(2) vacuum, found that the chiral symmetry breaking disappeared if one removed the topological eigenmodes of $`i\overline{)}D[A]`$. While conclusive about the lattice theory, there was a question mark over the continuum theory: despite the lattice spacing being ‘small’ (e.g. $`\beta =2.6`$) the $`|Q|`$ zero-modes were no closer to zero than the other small modes of $`i\overline{)}D[A]`$. (See also .) This raises doubts about how continuum-like is the spectrum of the $`O(V)`$ mixed would-be zero modes; one really needs the lattice shift in the exact zero-modes to leave them small compared to the other small modes in a reasonably sized box. (The exact $`|Q|\sqrt{V}`$ zero modes become irrelevant in the thermodynamic limit.) This raises doubts about any lattice calculations of the influence of instantons on quarks; e.g hadron masses as well as chiral symmetry breaking.

So the exciting news here is, of course, ‘Ginsparg-Wilson’. In particular the Columbia group has pursued the domain wall variant and have produced some very pretty calculations  showing that even with a modest 5’th dimension one obtains ‘exact’ lattice zero-modes that are very much smaller than the other small modes of the Dirac spectrum in a reasonably sized box. (In practice they observe the $`1/m`$ behaviour in $`\overline{\psi }\psi _{m,V}`$ that one obtains from such modes.) This provides an explicit demonstration that controlled calculations of the influence of topology on continuum hadronic physics can now be done.

There has also been related work with overlap fermions  and there has been a great deal of comparison with Random Matrix Theory, as well as other model calculations, which I hope will be reviewed elsewhere.

## 4 The instanton content of the vacuum

There has been a new calculation of the topological structure of the SU(2) vacuum . The main novelty here is a modified cooling algorithm that is designed to cool out to a specified cooling radius $`r_c`$. One finds that while some features, such as the average instanton size, vary weakly with $`r_c`$, other quantities, such as the instanton density and average nearest instanton anti-instanton distance, vary rapidly with $`r_c`$. (Not unlike the conclusions of  using ordinary cooling.) This is largely bad news if what you want is to obtain the detailed properties of the instanton ‘gas’ in the original vacuum, so that you can provide an input into phenomenological instanton calculations .

However one thing that is not understood is how much of this apparent variation with cooling is real and how much of it is actually the fault of the ‘pattern recognition’ algorithms that turn the topological charge density into an instanton ensemble. Here a gleam of hope comes from a reanalysis in  of . Clearly in $`n_c`$ usual cooling sweeps one expects roughly $`\overline{r_c}a\sqrt{n_c}`$. Plotting the data of  for all $`\beta `$ and $`n_c`$ against the corresponding scaling variable,  finds a very nice scaling. More importantly, they find a range of $`r_c`$ where the instanton properties become independent of $`r_c`$. This range is narrow, so it needs more work. But it provides some hope …

The instanton gases found on the lattice are usually denser, and with larger average instanton sizes, than the instanton liquid models  would like. So it is interesting that a recent calculation  of the quark physics (in a ‘toy model’) from the lattice instanton ensembles of  finds that the important part of the low-$`\lambda `$ spectrum looks like that of a dilutish gas of narrower instantons. There is a simple reason for this; a large instanton has a large zero-mode that has a correspondingly small density. It will therefore have a small value when integrated over the small volume where the zero-mode of the small instanton resides. This leades to a small mixing between large and small instantons: they approximately decouple. This mechanism provides a possibility for reconciling the lattice and the instanton liquid.

Note also related work in  and .

## 5 Instantons and confinement

An isolated instanton affects a large Wilson loop weakly; it merely renormalises the Coulomb potential . So one expects that an instanton ‘gas’ (no long range order) will not disorder a Wilson loop strongly enough to produce an area decay. The claim in  that random ensembles of instantons do produce linear confinement is therefore surprising. However we note that our analytic intuition really holds for Wilson loops that avoid instanton cores. In  the density distributions used are $`D(\rho )1/\rho ^5`$ or $`1/\rho ^3`$. This corresponds to the ‘packing fraction’ $`𝑑\rho D(\rho )\rho ^4`$ diverging! So these are very dense gases, and the Wilson loop will, throughout its length, pass in the middle of densely overlapping instanton cores. It may be that this will disorder the Wilson loop sufficiently to confine. This is relevant since lattice calculations suggest that instantons in the real vacuum are dense and highly overlapping. It is of course important to check that the field configurations being used, generated by the approximation of adding the individual $`A_I(x)`$ (in singular gauge), do indeed accurately denote a ‘gas’ of topological charges, and that the confining disorder is not being produced by the breakdown of this standard linear addition ansatz. These and related  directions will be interesting to pursue further.