A Monte Carlo study of old, new and tadpole improved actions

Scaling of mass ratios in intermediate volumes, obtained with improved SU(2) lattice actions is tested against analytic results for the Wilson and continuum action. A new improved action is introduced by adding a 2 × 2 plaquette to the Symanzik action. Completing a square leads to a covariant propagator that simplifies perturbative calculations. Data is presented on lattices of size 43 × 128, with lattice spacings of approximately 0.02 and 0.12 fermi. For the latter case no further improvement as compared to the tree-level action was observed when including the Lepage-Mackenzie tadpole correction to the one-loop improved Lüscher-Weisz Symanzik action.