Theoretical particle physics: Technical progress report

Research in lattice gauge theory during the past year is described. Several projects were completed dealing with QCD simulations including dynamical fermions. A study of the spectrum of QCD was combined with a study of the finite temperature chiral symmetry restoration transition in order to determine the transition temperature in MeV. The transition temperature is seen to be ∼ 130 MeV, which makes it more accessible to observation at a relativistic heavy-ion collider than previously expected. Studies of hadronic screening lengths and the quark number susceptibility at zero chemical potential provide further probes of the high temperature phase of QCD. Work has continued on algorithm development with the publication of one paper on systematic errors as a function of step size and conjugate gradient residual, and work in progress on fermion matrix preconditioning and global accept-reject algorithms