Chiral Logs in Quenched QCD

Abstract

The quenched chiral logs are examined on a $16^3 \times 28$ lattice with Iwasaki gauge action and overlap fermions. The pion decay constant $f_π$ is used to set the lattice spacing, $a = 0.200(3) {\rm fm}$. With pion mass as low as $\sim 180 {\rm MeV}$, we see the quenched chiral logs clearly in $m_π^2/m$ and $f_P$, the pseudoscalar decay constant. We analyze the data to determine how low the pion mass needs to be in order for the quenched one-loop chiral perturbation theory ($χ$PT) to apply. With the constrained curve-fitting method, we are able to extract the quenched chiral log parameter $δ$ together with other low-energy parameters. Only for $m_π \leq 300 {\rm MeV}$ do we obtain a consistent and stable fit with a constant $δ$ which we determine to be 0.24(3)(4) (at the chiral scale $Λ_χ=0.8 {\rm GeV}$). By comparing to the $12^3 \times 28$ lattice, we estimate the finite volume effect to be about 2.7% for the smallest pion mass. We also fitted the pion mass to the form for the re-summed cactus diagrams and found that its applicable region is extended farther than the range for the one-loop formula, perhaps up to $m_π \sim 500-600$ MeV. The scale independent $δ$ is determined to be 0.20(3) in this case. We study the quenched non-analytic terms in the nucleon mass and find that the coefficient $C_{1/2}$ in the nucleon mass is consistent with the prediction of one-loop $χ$PT\@. We also obtain the low energy constant $L_5$ from $f_π$. We conclude from this study that it is imperative to cover only the range of data with the pion mass less than $\sim 300 {\rm MeV}$ in order to examine the chiral behavior of the hadron masses and decay constants in quenched QCD and match them with quenched one-loop $χ$PT\@.