Truncation of lattice N = 4 super Yang-Mills

Abstract

In twisted and orbifold formulations of lattice N = 4 super Yang-Mills, the gauge group is necessarily U(1) × SU(N), in order to be consistent with the exact scalar supersymmetry Q. In the classical continuum limit of the theory, where one expands the link fields around a point in the moduli space and sends the lattice spacing to zero, the diagonal U(1) modes decouple from the SU(N) sector, and give an uninteresting free theory. However, lattice artifacts (described by irrelevant operators according to naive power-counting) couple the two sectors, so removing the U(1) modes is a delicate issue. We describe how this truncation to an SU(N) gauge theory can be obtained in a systematic way, with violations of Q that fall off as powers of 1=N2. We are able to achieve this while retaining exact SU(N) lattice gauge symmetry at all N, and provide both theoretical arguments and numerical evidence for the 1=N2 suppression of Q violation.