2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/222561We perform a nonperturbative tuning of the coefficients in the $O(a^2)$ improved action for staggered fermions. The mass splitting for the pions of different doubler flavor is used as a measure of the symmetry breaking effects introduced by $O(a^2)$ discretization errors. We find that the flavor nondegeneracy can be somewhat reduced but not eliminated by such a tuning, indicating the need for new terms in the action to reduce the nondegeneracy.3 pages. Lattice 2001 proceedingsHigh Energy Physics - Latticetext