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C. McNeile

Publications and source records attributed to C. McNeile.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

Utility of a hybrid approach to the hadronic vacuum polarisation contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment

An accurate calculation of the leading-order hadronic vacuum polarisation (LOHVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon ($a_\mu$) is key to determining whether a discrepancy, suggesting new physics, exists between the Standard Model and experimental results. This calculation can be expressed as an integral over Euclidean time of a current-current correlator $G(t)$, where $G(t)$ can be calculated using lattice QCD or, with dispersion relations, from experimental data for $e^+e^-\to\mbox{hadrons}$. The BMW/DMZ collaboration recently presented a hybrid approach in which $G(t)$ is calculated using lattice QCD for most of the contributing $t$ range, but using experimental data for the largest $t$ (lowest energy) region. Here we study the advantages of varying the position $t=t_1$ separating lattice QCD from data-driven contributions. The total LOHVP contribution should be independent of $t_1$, providing both a test of the experimental input and the robustness of the hybrid approach. We use this criterion and a correlated fit to show that Fermilab/HPQCD/MILC lattice QCD results from 2019 strongly favour the CMD-3 cross-section data for $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-$ over a combination of earlier experimental results for this channel. Further, the resulting total LOHVP contribution obtained is consistent with the result obtained by BMW/DMZ, and supports the scenario in which there is no significant discrepancy between the experimental value for $a_\mu$ and that expected in the Standard Model. We then discuss how improved lattice results in this hybrid approach could provide a more accurate total LOHVP across a wider range of $t_1$ values with an uncertainty that is smaller than that from either lattice QCD or data-driven approaches on their own.

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arXiv2022

Windows on the hadronic vacuum polarisation contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment

An accurate determination of the leading-order hadronic vacuum polarisation (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is critical to understanding the size and significance of any discrepancy between the Standard Model prediction and experimental results being obtained by the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab. The Standard Model prediction is currently based on a data-driven approach to the HVP using experimental results for $σ(e^+e^-\rightarrow\,\mathrm{hadrons})$. Lattice QCD aims to provide a result with similar uncertainty from calculated vector-vector correlation functions, but the growth of statistical and systematic errors in the $u/d$ quark correlation functions at large Euclidean time has made this difficult to achieve. We show that restricting the lattice contributions to a one-sided window $0<t<t_1$ can greatly improve lattice results while still capturing a large fraction of the total HVP. We illustrate this by comparing windowed lattice results based on the 2019 Fermilab Lattice/HPQCD/MILC HVP analysis with corresponding results obtained from the KNT19 analysis of $R_{e^+e^-}$ data. For $t_1=1.5$ fm, 70% of the total HVP is contained within the window and our lattice result has an error of~0.7%, only about twice as big as the error from the $e^+e^-$~analysis. We see a tension of 2.7$σ$ between the two results. With increased statistics in the lattice data the one-sided windows will allow stringent tests of lattice and $R_{e^+e^-}$ results that include a large fraction of the total HVP contribution.

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arXiv2020

Hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment from four-flavor lattice QCD

We calculate the contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment hadronic vacuum polarization from {the} connected diagrams of up and down quarks, omitting electromagnetism. We employ QCD gauge-field configurations with dynamical $u$, $d$, $s$, and $c$ quarks and the physical pion mass, and analyze five ensembles with lattice spacings ranging from $a \approx 0.06$ to~0.15~fm. The up- and down-quark masses in our simulations have equal masses $m_l$. We obtain, in this world where all pions have the mass of the $π^0$, $10^{10} a_μ^{ll}({\rm conn.}) = 637.8\,(8.8)$, in agreement with independent lattice-QCD calculations. We then combine this value with published lattice-QCD results for the connected contributions from strange, charm, and bottom quarks, and an estimate of the uncertainty due to the fact that our calculation does not include strong-isospin breaking, electromagnetism, or contributions from quark-disconnected diagrams. Our final result for the total $\mathcal{O}(α^2)$ hadronic vacuum polarization to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment is~$10^{10}a_μ^{\rm HVP,LO} = 699(15)_{u,d}(1)_{s,c,b}$, where the errors are from the light-quark and heavy-quark contributions, respectively. Our result agrees with both {\it ab-initio} lattice-QCD calculations and phenomenological determinations from experimental $e^+e^-$-scattering data. It is $1.3σ$ below the "no new physics" value of the hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution inferred from combining the BNL E821 measurement of $a_μ$ with theoretical calculations of the other contributions.

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arXiv2019

The hadronic vacuum polarization of the muon from four-flavor lattice QCD

We present an update on the ongoing calculations by the Fermilab Lattice, HPQCD, and MILC Collaboration of the leading-order (in electromagnetism) hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Our project employs ensembles with four flavors of highly improved staggered fermions, physical light-quark masses, and four lattice spacings ranging from $a \approx 0.06$ to 0.15 fm for most of the results thus far.

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arXiv2018

Determination of the quark condensate from heavy-light current-current correlators in full lattice QCD

We derive the Operator Product Expansion whose vacuum expectation value gives the time-moments of the pseudoscalar heavy-light current-current correlator up to and including terms in $α_s^2$ multiplying $\langle\overlineψψ\rangle/M^3$ and terms in $α_s$ multiplying $\langle α_s G^2 \rangle/M^4$, where $M$ is the heavy-quark mass. Using lattice QCD results for heavy-strange correlators obtained for a variety of heavy quark masses on gluon field configurations including $u$, $d$ and $s$ quarks in the sea at three values of the lattice spacing, we are able to show that the contribution of the strange-quark condensate to the time-moments is very substantial. We use our lattice QCD time-moments and the OPE to determine a value for the condensate, fitting the 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th time-moments simultaneously. Our result, $\langle \overline{s}s \rangle^{\overline{\text{MS}}}(2 \text{GeV}) = -(296(11) \,\mathrm{MeV})^3$, agrees well with HPQCD's earlier, more direct, lattice QCD determination~\cite{McNeile:2012xh}. As well as confirming that the $s$ quark condensate is close in value to the light quark condensate, this demonstrates clearly the consistency of the Operator Product Expansion for fully nonperturbative calculations of matrix elements of short-distance operators in lattice QCD.

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arXiv2018

Strong-isospin-breaking correction to the muon anomalous magnetic moment from lattice QCD at the physical point

All lattice-QCD calculations of the hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment to-date have been performed with degenerate up- and down-quark masses. Here we calculate directly the strong-isospin-breaking correction to $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ for the first time with physical values of $m_u$ and $m_d$ and dynamical $u$, $d$, $s$, and $c$ quarks, thereby removing this important source of systematic uncertainty. We obtain a relative shift to be applied to lattice-QCD results obtained with degenerate light-quark masses of $δa_μ^{{\rm HVP,} m_u \neq m_d}$= +1.5(7)%, in agreement with estimates from phenomenology and a recent lattice-QCD calculation with unphysically heavy pions.

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arXiv2014

High-precision quark masses and QCD coupling from $n_f=4$ lattice QCD

We present a new lattice QCD analysis of heavy-quark pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar correlators, using gluon configurations from the MILC collaboration that include vacuum polarization from $u$, $d$, $s$ and $c$~quarks($n_f=4$). We extract new values for the QCD coupling and for the $c$ quark's $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ mass: $α_{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}(M_Z,n_f=5) = 0.11822(74)$ and $m_c(3\mathrm{GeV}, n_f=4) = 0.9851(63)$GeV. These agree well with our earlier simulations using $n_f=3$ sea quarks, vindicating the perturbative treatment of $c$ quarks in that analysis. We also obtain a new nonperturbative result for the ratio of $c$~and $s$~quark masses: $m_c/m_s=11.652(65)$. This ratio implies $m_s(2\,\mathrm{GeV}, n_f=3)=93.6(8)$MeV when it is combined with our new~$c$~mass. Combining $m_c/m_s$ with our earlier $m_b/m_c$ gives $m_b/m_s=52.55(55)$, which is several standard deviations (but only 4%) away from the Georgi-Jarlskop prediction from certain GUTs. Finally we obtain an $n_f=4$ estimate for $m_b/m_c=4.528(54)$ which agrees well with our earlier $n_f=3$ result. The new ratio implies~$m_b(m_b,n_f=5)=4.162(48)$GeV.

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arXiv2013

Bottomonium and B results from full lattice QCD

We have developed two methods for handling $b$ quarks in lattice QCD. One uses NRQCD (now improved to include radiative corrections) and the other uses Highly Improved Staggered Quarks (HISQ), extrapolating to the $b$ quark from lighter masses and using multiple lattice spacings to control discretisation errors. Comparison of results for the two different methods gives confidence in estimates of lattice QCD systematic errors, since they are very different in these two cases. Here we show results for heavyonium hyperfine splittings and vector current-current correlator moments using HISQ quarks, to add to earlier results testing the heavy HISQ method with pseudoscalar mesons. We also show the form factor for $B \rightarrow πl ν$ decay at zero recoil using NRQCD $b$ quarks and $u/d$ quarks with physical masses. This allows us to test the soft pion theorem relation ($f_0(q^2_{max})=f_B/f_π$) accurately and we find good agreement as $M_π \rightarrow 0$. }

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arXiv2013

Vus from pi and K decay constants in full lattice QCD with physical u, d, s and c quarks

We determine the decay constants of the pi and K mesons on gluon field configurations from the MILC collaboration including u, d, s and c quarks. We use three values of the lattice spacing and u/d quark masses going down to the physical value. We use the w_0 parameter to fix the relative lattice spacing and f_pi to fix the overall scale. This allows us to obtain a value for f{K^+}/f{pi^+} = 1.1916(21). Comparing to the ratio of experimental leptonic decay rates gives |Vus| = 0.22564(28){Br(K^+)}(20){EM}(40){latt}(5){Vud} and the test of unitarity of the first row of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix: |Vud|^2+|Vus|^2+|Vub|^2 - 1 = 0.00009(51).

hep-lat↗
arXiv2013

B, Bs, K and pi weak matrix elements with physical light quarks

Calculations of pseudoscalar decay constants of B, Bs, K and pi mesons with physical light quarks are presented. We use HISQ ensembles that include u,d,s and c sea quarks at three lattice spacings. HISQ is used for the valence light quarks and a radiatively improved NRQCD action for the heavy quarks. The key results are f_{B^+}=0.184(4)$ GeV, f_{B_s}=0.224(4) GeV, f_{B_s}/f_{B^+}=1.217(8), f_{K^+}/f_{pi^+}=1.1916(21), f_{K^+}=155.37(34) MeV, giving a significant improvement over previous results that required chiral extrapolation. We also calculate the Wilson flow scale w_0, finding w_0=0.1715(9) fm.

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arXiv2013

Direct determination of strange and light quark condensates from full lattice QCD

We determine the strange and light quark condensates in full lattice QCD for the first time. This is done by direct calculation of the expectation value of the trace of the quark propagator followed by subtraction of the appropriate perturbative contribution to convert to a value for the condensate in the MS-bar scheme at 2 GeV. We use lattice QCD configurations including u, d, s and c quarks in the sea with u/d quark masses going down to the physical value. We find the ratio of the strange to the light quark condensate to be 1.08(16).

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arXiv2012

Direct determination of the strange and light quark condensates from full lattice QCD

We determine the strange quark condensate from lattice QCD for the first time and compare its value to that of the light quark and chiral condensates. The results come from a direct calculation of the expectation value of the trace of the quark propagator followed by subtraction of the appropriate perturbative contribution, derived here, to convert the non-normal-ordered $m\barψψ$ to the $\bar{MS}$ scheme at a fixed scale. This is then a well-defined physical `nonperturbative' condensate that can be used in the Operator Product Expansion of current-current correlators. The perturbative subtraction is calculated through $\mathcal{O}(α_s)$ and estimates of higher order terms are included through fitting results at multiple lattice spacing values. The gluon field configurations used are `second generation' ensembles from the MILC collaboration that include 2+1+1 flavors of sea quarks implemented with the Highly Improved Staggered Quark action and including $u/d$ sea quarks down to physical masses. Our results are : $<\bar{s}{s}>^{\bar{MS}}(2 \mathrm{GeV})= -(290(15) \mathrm{MeV})^3$, $<\bar{l}{l}>^{\bar{MS}}(2\, \mathrm{GeV})= -(283(2) \mathrm{MeV})^3$, where $l$ is a light quark with mass equal to the average of the $u$ and $d$ quarks. The strange to light quark condensate ratio is 1.08(16). The light quark condensate is significantly larger than the chiral condensate in line with expectations from chiral analyses. We discuss the implications of these results for other calculations.

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arXiv2012

High-precision scale setting in lattice QCD

Scale setting is of central importance in lattice QCD. It is required to predict dimensional quantities in physical units. Moreover, it determines the relative lattice spacings of computations performed at different values of the bare coupling, and this is needed for extrapolating results into the continuum. Thus, we calculate a new quantity, $w_0$, for setting the scale in lattice QCD, which is based on the Wilson flow like the scale $t_0$ (M. Luscher, JHEP 1008 (2010) 071). It is cheap and straightforward to implement and compute. In particular, it does not involve the delicate fitting of correlation functions at asymptotic times. It typically can be determined on the few per-mil level. We compute its continuum extrapolated value in 2+1-flavor QCD for physical and non-physical pion and kaon masses, to allow for mass-independent scale setting even away from the physical mass point. We demonstrate its robustness by computing it with two very different actions (one of them with staggered, the other with Wilson fermions) and by showing that the results agree for physical quark masses in the continuum limit.

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arXiv2012

Towards the glueball spectrum from unquenched lattice QCD

We use a variational technique to study heavy glueballs on gauge configurations generated with 2+1 flavours of ASQTAD improved staggered fermions. The variational technique includes glueball scattering states. The measurements were made using 2150 configurations at 0.092 fm with a pion mass of 360 MeV. We report masses for 10 glueball states. We discuss the prospects for unquenched lattice QCD calculations of the oddballs.

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arXiv2012

Precision tests of the J/ψ from full lattice QCD: mass, leptonic width and radiative decay rate to η_c

We calculate the J/ψ mass, leptonic width and radiative decay rate to γη_c from lattice QCD including u, d and s quarks in the sea for the first time. We use the Highly Improved Staggered Quark formalism and nonperturbatively normalised vector currents for the leptonic and radiative decay rates. Our results are: M_{J/ψ} -M_{η_c} = 116.5(3.2) MeV; Γ(J/ψ to e^+e^-) = 5.48(16) keV; Γ(J/ψ to γη_c) = 2.49(19) keV. The first two are in good agreement with experiment, with Γ(J/ψ to e^+e^-) providing a test of a decay matrix element in QCD, independent of CKM uncertainties, to 2%. At the same time results for the time moments of the correlation function can be compared to values from the charm contribution to Γ(e^+e^- to hadrons), giving a 1.5% test of QCD. Our results show that an improved experimental error would enable a similarly strong test from Γ(J/ψ to γη_c).

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arXiv2012

Heavy meson masses and decay constants from relativistic heavy quarks in full lattice QCD

We determine masses and decay constants of heavy-heavy and heavy-charm pseudoscalar mesons as a function of heavy quark mass using a fully relativistic formalism known as Highly Improved Staggered Quarks for the heavy quark. We are able to cover the region from the charm quark mass to the bottom quark mass using MILC ensembles with lattice spacing values from 0.15 fm down to 0.044 fm. We obtain f_{B_c} = 0.427(6) GeV; m_{B_c} = 6.285(10) GeV and f_{η_b} = 0.667(6) GeV. Our value for f_{η_b} is within a few percent of f_Υ confirming that spin effects are surprisingly small for heavyonium decay constants. Our value for f_{B_c} is significantly lower than potential model values being used to estimate production rates at the LHC. We discuss the changing physical heavy-quark mass dependence of decay constants from heavy-heavy through heavy-charm to heavy-strange mesons. A comparison between the three different systems confirms that the B_c system behaves in some ways more like a heavy-light system than a heavy-heavy one. Finally we summarise current results on decay constants of gold-plated mesons.

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arXiv2011

Precision computation of the kaon bag parameter

Indirect CP violation in K \rightarrow ππ decays plays a central role in constraining the flavor structure of the Standard Model (SM) and in the search for new physics. For many years the leading uncertainty in the SM prediction of this phenomenon was the one associated with the nonperturbative strong interaction dynamics in this process. Here we present a fully controlled lattice QCD calculation of these effects, which are described by the neutral kaon mixing parameter B_K . We use a two step HEX smeared clover-improved Wilson action, with four lattice spacings from a\approx0.054 fm to a\approx0.093 fm and pion masses at and even below the physical value. Nonperturbative renormalization is performed in the RI-MOM scheme, where we find that operator mixing induced by chiral symmetry breaking is very small. Using fully nonperturbative continuum running, we obtain our main result B_K^{RI}(3.5GeV)=0.531(6)_{stat}(2)_{sys}. A perturbative 2-loop conversion yields B_K^{MSbar-NDR}(2GeV)=0.564(6)_{stat}(3)_{sys}(6)_{PT}, which is in good agreement with current results from fits to experimental data.

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