Lattice gauge theories and Monte Carlo algorithms

Lattice gauge theory has become the primary tool for non-perturbative calculations in quantum field theory. These lectures review some of the foundations of this subject. The first lecture reviews the basic definition of the theory in terms of invariant integrals over group elements on lattice bonds. The lattice represents an ultraviolet cutoff, and renormalization group arguments show how the bare coupling must be varied to obtain the continuum limit. Expansions in the inverse of the coupling constant demonstrate quark confinement in the strong coupling limit. The second lecture turns to numerical simulation, which has become an important approach to calculating hadronic properties. Here I discuss the basic algorithms for obtaining appropriately weighted gauge field configurations. The third lecture turns to algorithms for treating fermionic fields, which still require considerably more computer time than needed for purely bosonic simulations. Some particularly promising recent approaches are based on global accept-reject steps and should display a rather favorable dependence of computer time on the system volume. (orig.)