arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C. McNeile.
We compute the masses of the flavour singlet 0++ mesons using (n_f=2) unquenched lattice QCD with the Iwasaki and Wilson gauge actions. Both fermionic and glueball interpolating operators are used to create the states. The mass of the lightest 0++ meson is suppressed relative to the mass of the 0++ glueball in quenched QCD at an equivalent lattice spacing. We discuss two possible physical reasons for this.
We review the theory that predicts that the decay constant of the excited light pseudo-scalar mesons are suppressed in the chiral limit relative to the pion decay constant. We compute the decay constant of the first excited pion ($π^\prime$) using unquenched QCD at a fixed lattice spacing with sea quarks of mass as low as a third the mass of the strange quark. The final result is very sensitive to the improvement conditions. We obtain $f_{π^\prime} / f_π$ = 0.078(93) in the chiral limit.
Lattice QCD with $N_f=2$ flavours of sea quark is used to explore the spectrum and decay of scalar mesons. We are able to determine the $b_1$ - $a_0$ mass difference and this leads to the conclusion that the lightest non-singlet scalar meson ($a_0$) has a mass of 1.01(4) GeV. We determine from the lattice the coupling strength to KK and $πη$. We compute the leptonic decay constant of the lightest non-singlet scalar meson. We discuss the impact of these lattice results on the interpretation of the $a_0(980)$ state. We also discuss $K^*_0$ states.
We review some decays that require knowledge of the decay constants of $0^{+}$ heavy-light mesons. We compute the decay constants of P-wave heavy-light mesons from unquenched lattice QCD, with two degenerate flavours of sea quarks, at a single lattice spacing. The lightest sea quark mass used in the calculation is a third of the strange quark mass. For the charm-strange meson we obtain the decay constant: $f_{D_{s 0^+}} = 340(110)$ MeV using our normalisation conventions. We obtain the $f_{P_s}^{static}$ (static-strange P-wave) decay constant as $302(39)$ MeV.
Lattice QCD with $N_f=2$ flavours of sea quark is used to explore the spectrum and decay of a $J^{PC}=1^{-+}$ spin-exotic hybrid meson. We test lattice determination of S-wave decay amplitudes at threshold using $b_1 \to πω$ where agreement with data is found. We find a hybrid meson state at 2.2(2) GeV with a partial width to $πb_1$ of 400(120) MeV and to $πf_1$ of 90(60) MeV.
We compute the mass of the charm quark using both quenched and dynamical lattice QCD calculations. We examine the effects of mass dependent lattice artifacts by comparing two different formalisms for the heavy quarks. We take the continuum limit of the charm mass in quenched QCD by extrapolating from three different lattice spacings. At a fixed lattice spacing, the mass of the charm quark is compared between quenched QCD and dynamical QCD with a sea quark mass around strange. In the continuum limit of quenched QCD, we find m_c(m_c)=1.29(7)(13) GeV. No evidence was seen for unquenching.
This is a follow-up to our earlier work [Phys. Rev. D 65, 014512 (2002); Eur. Phys. J. C 28, 79 (2003); Phys. Rev. D 69, 094505 (2004)] for the energies and the charge (vector) and matter (scalar) distributions for S-wave states in a heavy-light meson, where the heavy quark is static and the light quark has a mass about that of the strange quark. We study the radial distributions of higher angular momentum states, namely P- and D-wave states. In nature the closest equivalent of this heavy-light system is the B_s meson. The calculation is carried out with dynamical fermions on a 16^3 times 32 lattice with a lattice spacing of about 0.10 fm generated with the non-perturbatively improved clover action. It is shown that several features of the energies and radial distributions are in qualitative agreement with what one expects from a simple one-body Dirac equation interpretation.
Twisted mass fermions allow light quarks to be explored but with the consequence that there are mass splittings, such as between the neutral and charged pion. Using a direct calculation of the connected neutral pion correlator and stochastic methods to evaluate the disconnected correlations, we determine the neutral pion mass. We explore the dependence on lattice spacing and quark mass in quenched QCD. For dynamical QCD, we determine the sign of the splitting which is linked, via chiral PT, to the nature of the phase transition at small quark mass.
We study the flavour breaking effects appearing in the Wilson twisted mass formulation of lattice QCD. In this quenched study, we focus on the mass splitting between the neutral and the charged pion, determining the neutral pion mass with a stochastic noise method to evaluate the disconnected contributions. We find that these disconnected contributions are significant. Using the Osterwalder-Seiler interpretation of the connected piece of the neutral pion correlator, we compute the corresponding neutral pion mass to study with more precision the scaling behaviour of the mass splitting.
We compute the charm quark mass in lattice QCD and compare different formulations of the heavy quark, and quenched data to that with dynamical sea quarks. We take the continuum limit of the quenched data by extrapolating from three different lattice spacings, and compare to data with two flavours of dynamical sea quarks with a mass around the strange at the coarsest lattice spacing. Both the FNAL and ALPHA formalism are used. We find the different heavy quark formulations have the same continuum limit in the quenched approximation, and limited evidence that this approximation overestimates the charm quark mass.
We compute the b quark mass from dynamical lattice QCD with clover quarks. The calculation is done at a fixed lattice spacing with sea quark masses as low as half the strange quark mass. Our final result is m_b(m_b} = 4.25(2)(11) GeV, where the first error is statistical and the last error is the systematic uncertainty.
We explore the transitions B$(0^+)$ to B $π$ and B$_s(0^+)$ to B K from lattice QCD with $N_f=2$ flavours of sea quark, using the static approximation for the heavy quark. We evaluate the effective coupling constants, predicting a B$(0^+)$ to B $π$ width of around 160 MeV. Our result for the coupling strength adds to the evidence that the B$_s(0^+)$ meson is not predominantly a molecular state (BK).
We explore the splitting between flavour singlet and non-singlet mesons in charmonium. This has implications for the hyperfine splitting in charmonium.
We determine the energies of the excited states of a heavy-light meson $Q\bar{q}$, with a static heavy quark and light quark with mass approximately that of the strange quark from both quenched lattices and with dynamical fermions. We are able to explore the energies of orbital excitations up to L=3, the spin-orbit splitting up to L=2 and the first radial excitation. These $b \bar{s}$ mesons will be very narrow if their mass is less than 5775 MeV -- the $BK$ threshold. We investigate this in detail and present evidence that the scalar meson (L=1) will be very narrow and that as many as 6 $b \bar{s}$ excited states will have energies close to the $BK$ threshold and should also be relatively narrow.
We determine the mass of the charm quark ($m_c$) from lattice QCD with two flavors of dynamical quarks with a mass around the strange quark. We compare this to a determination in quenched QCD which has the same lattice spacing (0.1 fm). We investigate different formulations of the quark mass, based on the Vector Ward Identity, PCAC relation and the FNAL heavy quark formalism. Based on these preliminary results we find no effects due to sea quarks with a mass around strange.
We discuss strategies to determine hadronic decay couplings from lattice studies. As an application, we explore the decay of a vector meson to two pseudoscalar mesons with $N_f=2$ flavours of sea quark. Although we are working with quark masses that do not allow a physical decay, we show how the transition rate can be evaluated from the amplitude for $ρ\to ππ$ and from the annihilation component of $ππ\to ππ$. We explore the decay amplitude for two different pion momenta and find consistent results. The coupling strength we find is in agreement with experiment. We also find evidence for a shift in the $ρ$ mass caused by mixing with two pion states.
We present preliminary results of a determination of the semileptonic form factor for the decay of pseudoscalar heavy-light mesons to pseudoscalar light-light mesons in full QCD. In this preliminary study we focus on the effects of dynamical quark loops. Accordingly, we compare results of simulations with matched quenched and Asqtad dynamical gauge configurations. The latter include three flavors of light quarks. Our simulation uses clover Wilson valence quarks, treated in the Fermilab formalism. Preliminary results, as yet uncorrected by continuum matching factors, suggest a measurable enhancement in the form factor due to dynamical quark loops over the accessible range of $q^2$.
The spectrum of orbitally excited $D_s$ mesons is computed in the continuum limit of quenched lattice QCD. The results are consistent with the interpretation that the narrow resonance in the $D_s π^0$ channel discovered by the BABAR Collaboration is a $J^P=0^+$ $c\bar{s}$ meson. Furthermore, within statistical errors, the $1^+-1^-$ and the $0^+-0^-$ mass splittings are equal, in agreement with the chiral multiplet structure predicted by heavy hadron chiral effective theory. On our coarsest lattice we present results from the first study of orbitally excited $D_s$ mesons with two flavors of dynamical quarks, with mass slightly larger than the strange quark mass. These results are consistent with the quenched data.