A novel improved action for SU(3) lattice gauge theory

SU(3) lattice gauge theory is studied by means of an improved action where a 2x2 Wilson loop is supplemented to the standard plaquette term. By contrast to earlier studies using a tree level improvement, the prefactor of the 2x2 Wilson term is determined by minimizing the breaking of rotational symmetry detected from the static quark-antiquark potential. On coarse lattices, the novel action yields results which are of the same quality as those obtained by the DBW2 action. At small lattice spacings, the results are comparable with those from the Iwasaki action. Compared with the DBW2 action, the novel action needs less computer time to generate lattice configurations