Nonperturbative improvement of SU(2) lattice gauge theory with adjoint or fundamental flavours

The gauge theory with SU(2) color group and two fermion species, each transforming under the adjoint representation, may appear conformal or almost conformal in the infrared, and is one of the candidate theories for building models for technicolor. Early lattice Monte Carlo studies of this model have used unimproved Wilson fermion formulation, which can be expected to have large lattice cutoff effects. In this paper we present the calculation of the O(a) improved lattice Wilson-clover action of the theory. The Sheikholeslami-Wohlert coefficient has been determined nonperturbatively, and various boundary improvement terms, needed for the Schrödinger functional formalism, have been calculated in perturbation theory. For comparison, we have also determined the improvement coefficients for SU(2) gauge theory with two fundamental representation fermions. The calculation paves way for more accurate lattice Monte Carlo analyses of the theory in the future.