Wilson chiral perturbation theory, Wilson-Dirac operator eigenvalues and clover improvement

Abstract: Chiral perturbation theory for eigenvalue distributions, and equivalently random matrix theory, has recently been extended to include lattice effects for Wilson fermions. We test the predictions by comparison to eigenvalue distributions of the Hermitian Wilson-Dirac operator from pure gauge (quenched) ensembles. We show that the lattice effects are diminished when using clover improvement for the Dirac operator. We demonstrate that the leading Wilson low-energy constants associated with Wilson (clover) fermions can be determined using spectral information of the respective Dirac operator at finite volume.