Numerical Study of the Staggered Quark Action on Quenched Anisotropic Lattices

The staggered quark action on anisotropic lattices is studied. We carried out numerical simulations under the quenched approximation for three values of the lattice spacing (a−1σ = 1 – 2 GeV) with the anisotropy ξ = aσ/aτ = 4, where aσ and aτ are the spatial and temporal lattice spacings, respectively. The bare anisotropy γF in the quark action was numerically tuned in two separate ways, by adjusting the ratio of the meson masses in the fine and coarse directions, and by adjusting the meson dispersion relation, so that the renormalized fermionic anisotropy coincided with that of the gauge field. The discrepancy obtained using these two calibration schemes provides an estimate of the finite lattice artifact, which is found to be sizable in the range of cutoff values explored in this work. We also computed the meson masses using correlators with a wall source, employing the tuned value of the anisotropy parameter. We find that the flavor symmetry breaking effect smoothly decreases as β increases. The effect of the uncertainty in γF on the meson masses is examined. We also discuss the outlook for dynamical simulations. In numerical studies of lattice QCD, one frequently encounters situations i