On O(a^2) effects in gradient flow observables

In lattice gauge theories, the gradient flow has been used extensively both, for scale setting and for defining finite volume renormalization schemes for the gauge coupling. Unfortunately, rather large cutoff effects have been observed in some cases. We here investigate these effects to leading order in perturbation theory, considering various definitions of the lattice observable, the lattice flow equation and the Yang Mills lattice action. These considerations suggest an improved set- up for which we perform a scaling test in the pure SU(3) gauge theory, demonstrating strongly reduced cutoff effects. We then attempt to obtain a more complete understanding of the structure of O(a^2) effects by applying Symanzik's effective theory approach to the 4+1 dimensional local field theory with flow time as the fifth dimension. From these considerations we are led to a fully O(a^2) improved set-up the study of which is left to future work.