Link fermions and dynamically correlated paths for lattice gauge theory

The calculation of fermion bound states in lattice QCD is discussed from the point of view of the Feynman path integral and the corresponding lattice "path sum" representation of the fermion propagator. Path sum methods which correlate the trajectories of valence fermion and antifermion constituents of a meson bound state are presented. The resultant Monte Carlo algorithm for the meson propagator samples predominantly those configurations which are expected to be most important for a tightly bound system. Relative to other techniques, this procedure anticipates cancellations due to gauge field averaging, and in addition, allows a more detailed examination of the bound state wavefunction. Inspired by the fermionic path representation of the 2D Ising model, we also introduce a new class of lattice fermion actions with nearest neighbor interactions between Grassman variables associated with links. These link fermions are a simple generalization of Wilson's fermions. They have an additional corner weight parameter which can be adjusted to obtain a much improved dispersion relation for moderate and parge lattice momenta.