Hosted by: Hiroshi Oki

As the precision frontier of particle physics continues to develop, the field of lattice QCD has risen to the challenge. Modern lattice simulations, have increasingly included light non-degenerate up and down quark masses and electromagnetism. Previously answered questions about the vacuum structure of QCD on the lattice must be reexamined when these isospin breaking effects are included. If not careful, lattice practitioners may simulate in non-physical phases which cannot be extrapolated to the continuum limit. Using chiral perturbation theory, I will discuss where these non-physical phases can arise for Wilson and twisted mass fermions. I will also explain some of the complications which arise when tuning the up and down twisted quark masses to their critical values in the presence of electromagnetism.