  We analyze the properties of a class of improved lattice topological charge
density operators, constructed by a smearing-like procedure. By optimizing the
choice of the parameters introduced in their definition, we find operators
having (i) a better statistical behavior as estimators of the topological
charge density on the lattice, i.e. less noisy; (ii) a multiplicative
renormalization much closer to one; (iii) a large suppression of the
perturbative tail (and other unphysical mixings) in the corresponding lattice
topological susceptibility.
