Flavor symmetry breaking and scaling for improved staggered actions in quenched QCD

We present a study of the flavor symmetry breaking in the pion spectrum for the p4-improved fermion action. Three different variants of the p4 action - p4fat3, p4fat7, and p4fat7tad - are compared to the Asqtad and naive staggered actions. To study the pattern of symmetry breaking, we measure all 15 pion masses in the four-flavor staggered theory. The measurements are done on a quenched gauge background, generated using a one-loop improved Symanzik action with beta = 10/g(2) = 7.40, 7.75, and 8.00, corresponding to lattice spacings of approximately alpha = 0.31 fm, 0.21 fm, and 0.14 fm.