Tool kit for staggered fermions

The symmetries of staggered fermions are analyzed both discrete and continuous. Tools are presented that allow a simple decomposition of representations of the continuum symmetries into representations of the discrete lattice symmetries, both at zero and non-zero spatial momenta. These tools are used to find the lattice transcriptions of the operators that appear in the weak interaction Hamiltonian. The lattice Ward Identities are derived that follow from the single partially conserved axial symmetry. Using these identities, the lattice equivalents of the continuum PCAC relations are found. Combining all these tools, Ward Identities are obtained, for the matrix elements of the weak interaction Hamiltonian, from which the behavior of the matrix elements as the pion and kaon masses vanish are derived. The same behavior as in the continuum is found