Improved Landau gauge fixing and the suppression of finite-volume effects of the lattice gluon propagator

For the gluon propagator of pure SU(2) lattice gauge theory in the Landau gauge we investigate the effect of Gribov copies and finite-volume effects. Concerning gauge fixing, we enlarge the accessible gauge orbits by adding nonperiodic Z(2) gauge transformations and systematically employ the simulated annealing algorithm. Strategies to keep all Z(2) sectors under control within reasonable CPU time are discussed. We demonstrate that the finite-volume effects in the infrared regime become ameliorated. Reaching a physical volume of about (6.5 fm)(4), we find that the propagator, calculated with the indicated improvements, becomes flat in the region of smallest momenta. There are first signs in four dimensions of a decrease towards vanishing momentum.