staggered fermions ∗

We address the locality problem arising in simulations, which take the square root of the staggered fermion determinant as a Boltzmann weight to reduce the number of dynamical quark tastes from four to two. We study analytically and numerically the square root of the staggered fermion operator as a candidate to define a two taste theory from first principles. Although it has the correct weight, this operator is non-local in the continuum limit. Our work serves as a warning that fundamental properties of field theories might be violated when employing blindly the square root trick. The question, whether a local operator reproducing the square root of the staggered fermion determinant exists, is left open.