English

Reversibility Violation in the Hybrid Monte Carlo Algorithm

High Energy Physics - Lattice 2018-03-14 v2

Abstract

We investigate reversibility violations in the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm. Those violations are inevitable when computers with finite numerical precision are being used. In SU(2) gauge theory, we study the dependence of observables on the size of the reversibility violations. While we cannot find any statistically significant deviation in observables related to the simulated physical model, algorithmic specific observables signal an upper bound for reversibility violations below which simulations appear unproblematic. This empirically derived condition is independent of problem size and parameter values, at least in the range of parameters studied here.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.07526,
  title  = {Reversibility Violation in the Hybrid Monte Carlo Algorithm},
  author = {Carsten Urbach},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.07526},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

17 pages, 5 figures, typos corrected, comment added, matches published version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:20:26.883Z