Link fermions in Euclidean lattice gauge theory

The representation of the Wilson lattice fermion propagator as a sum over classical particle trajectories is discussed. A simple generalization of this path sum leads to an extended set of fermion theories characterized by one (or more) additional parameters. Such theories are nonlocal when written in terms of the usual four-component Dirac field. They are more naturally characterized by a local action functional whose degrees of freedom are those of a set of two-component Fermi fields defined on directed links of the lattice. Such lattice fields correspond to the direct product of a four-vector and Dirac spinor. For a suitable choice of parameters, the extended fermion theory offers a precocious approach to the continuum dispersion relation as the lattice spacing goes to zero and is therefore of interest for numerical studies of QCD