Gluon propagator on coarse lattices in Laplacian gauges

Abstract

The Laplacian gauge is a nonperturbative gauge fixing that reduces to the Landau gauge in the asymptotic limit. Like the Landau gauge, it respects Lorentz invariance, but it is free of Gribov copies; the gauge fixing is unambiguous. In this paper we study the infrared behavior of the lattice gluon propagator in the Laplacian gauge by using a variety of lattices with spacings from (Formula presented) to 0.35 fm, to explore finite volume and discretization effects. Three different implementations of the Laplacian gauge are defined and compared. The Laplacian gauge propagator has already been claimed to be insensitive to finite volume effects and this is tested on lattices with large volumes. © 2002 The American Physical Society.