Towards the $\beta$ function of SU(2) with adjoint matter using Pauli--Villars fields

The family of SU(2) theories with matter transforming in the adjoint representation has attracted interest from many angles. The 2-flavour theory, known as Minimal Walking Technicolor, has a body of evidence pointing to it being in the conformal window with anomalous dimension $\gamma_{*}\approx0.3$. Perturbative calculations would suggest that the 1-flavour theory should be confining and chirally broken; however, lattice studies of the theory have been inconclusive. In this contribution we present a first look at efforts towards the computation of the beta function of these theories using the gradient flow methodology. Following an exploration of the phase diagram of the two theories with Wilson fermions and additional Pauli–Villars fields, we tune the bare fermion mass to near the chiral limit, and subsequently generate ensembles at five lattice volumes and a range of lattice spacings.