In Fig. 
and Fig. we present comparison graphs of the
autocorrelation functions for the simple plaquettes and the 
rectangles. At small anisotropy of the lattice the autocorrelation times of the
spatial and temporal gluon operators are small and almost indistinguishable.
Figure: Effects of anisotropy on the autocorrelation functions for the
plaquettes.
Figure: Effects of anisotropy on the autocorrelation functions for the
rectangles.
With increasing (inverse) anisotropy, 
, the degeneracy lifts. The
autocorrelation times increase for Pss and Rss, and remain small and degenerate
for Pst, Rst1 and Rst2 observables. This is to be expected, since Pss and Rss
couple strongly to 
.
As can be observed from the graphs our autocorrelation functions distinguish well between the spatial and temporal modes on the lattice, and can be a good starting point for the optimization procedure.