Determination of the QCD $Λ$-parameter and the accuracy of perturbation theory at high energies

Abstract

We discuss the determination of the strong coupling $α_\mathrm{\overline{MS}}^{}(m_\mathrm{Z})$ or equivalently the QCD $Λ$-parameter. Its determination requires the use of perturbation theory in $α_s(μ)$ in some scheme, $s$, and at some energy scale $μ$. The higher the scale $μ$ the more accurate perturbation theory becomes, owing to asymptotic freedom. As one step in our computation of the $Λ$-parameter in three-flavor QCD, we perform lattice computations in a scheme which allows us to non-perturbatively reach very high energies, corresponding to $α_s = 0.1$ and below. We find that (continuum) perturbation theory is very accurate there, yielding a three percent error in the $Λ$-parameter, while data around $α_s \approx 0.2$ is clearly insufficient to quote such a precision. It is important to realize that these findings are expected to be generic, as our scheme has advantageous properties regarding the applicability of perturbation theory.