arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E. Gregory.
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.
We review recent results for B_d and B_s mixing parameters using MILC N_f=2+1 lattices, NRQCD b-quarks and AsqTad light quarks. Latest numbers for decay constants f_B and f_{B_s} are also presented. Combining our lattice results with experimental determinations of the mass differences ΔM_d and ΔM_s leads to an important ratio of elements of the CKM matrix, |V_{td}|/|V_{ts}| = 0.214(1)(5) and an updated Standard Model number for the branching fraction Br(B_s -> mu^+ mu^-) = 3.19(19) x 10^{-9}. Preliminary new results for f_{B_s} based on other actions are also described.
We present an update of results from the HPQCD collaboration on charm physics using the Highly Improved Staggered Quark action. This includes a precise determination of m_c using moments of current-current correlators combined with high-order continuum QCD perturbation theory. We also include an update on the determination of alpha_s from lattice QCD, preliminary results on the determination of m_b and a summary plot of the status of the gold-plated meson spectrum. There is an appendix on tackling systematic errors in fitting using the Bayesian approach.
In the past year, we calculated with lattice QCD three quantities that were unknown or poorly known. They are the $q^2$ dependence of the form factor in semileptonic $D\to Klν$ decay, the decay constant of the $D$ meson, and the mass of the $B_c$ meson. In this talk, we summarize these calculations, with emphasis on their (subsequent) confirmation by experiments.
We compute the strange quark mass $m_s$ and the average of the $u$ and $d$ quark masses $\hat m$ using full lattice QCD with three dynamical quarks combined with experimental values for the pion and kaon masses. The simulations have degenerate $u$ and $d$ quarks with masses $m_u=m_d\equiv \hat m$ as low as $m_s/8$, and two different values of the lattice spacing. The bare lattice quark masses obtained are converted to the $\msbar$ scheme using perturbation theory at $O(alpha_s)$. Our results are: $m_s^\msbar$(2 GeV) = 76(0)(3)(7)(0) MeV, $\hat m^\msbar$(2 GeV) = 2.8(0)(1)(3)(0) MeV and $m_s/\hat m$ = 27.4(1)(4)(0)(1), where the errors are from statistics, simulation, perturbation theory, and electromagnetic effects, respectively.
As one test of the validity of the staggered-fermion fourth-root determinant trick, we examine the suppression of the topological susceptibility of the QCD vacuum in the limit of small quark mass. The suppression is sensitive to the number of light sea quark flavors. Our study is done in the presence of 2+1 flavors of dynamical quarks in the improved staggered fermion formulation. Variance-reduction techniques provide better control of statistical errors. New results from staggered chiral perturbation theory account for taste-breaking effects in the low-quark mass behavior of the susceptibility, thereby reducing scaling violations from this source. Measurements over a range of quark masses at two lattice spacings permit a rough continuum extrapolation to remove the remaining lattice artifacts. The results are consistent with chiral perturbation theory with the correct flavor counting.
Chiral perturbation theory predicts that in quantum chromodymamics light dynamical quarks suppress the topological (instanton) susceptibility. We investigate this suppression through direct numerical simulation using the Asqtad improved lattice fermion action. This action holds promise for carrying out nonperturbative simulations over a range of quark masses for which chiral perturbation theory is expected to converge. To test the effectiveness of the action in capturing instanton physics, we measure the topological susceptibility as a function of quark masses with 2+1 dynamical flavors. Our results, when extrapolated to zero lattice spacing, are consistent with predictions of leading order chiral perturbation theory. Included in our study is a comparison of three methods for analyzing the topological susceptibility: (1) the Boulder hypercubic blocking technique with the Boulder topological charge operator, (2) the more traditional Wilson cooling method with the twisted plaquette topological charge operator and (3) the improved cooling method of de Forcrand, Perez, and Stamatescu and their improved topological charge operator.
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 $q^2$.
During the past year the MILC Collaboration has continued its study of heavy-light meson decay constants with three dynamical quarks. Calculations have been extended to a second lattice spacing of about 0.09 fm. At this lattice spacing, there are results in the quenched approximation and for three sets of dynamical quark mass: m_l=m_s; m_l=0.4 m_s and m_l=0.2 m_s, where m_l is the light mass for the u and d quarks and m_s is the strange quark mass. At the coarser lattice spacing, for which results were presented at Lattice 2001, statistics have been increased for two sets of quark masses and three additional sets of quark masses have been studied, giving a total of eight combinations used to interpolate between the quenched and chiral limits. When these calculations are completed, we can study the decay constants taking into account both chiral and continuum extrapolations.
We are studying the effects of light dynamical quarks on the excitation energies of a flux tube between a static quark and antiquark. We report preliminary results of an analysis of the ground state potential and the $Σ^{\prime+}_g$ and $Π_u$ potentials. We have measured these potentials on closely matched ensembles of gauge configurations, generated in the quenched approximation and with 2+1 flavors of Asqtad improved staggered quarks.
As a test of the chiral properties of the improved Asqtad (staggered fermion) action, we have been measuring the topological susceptibility as a function of quark masses for 2 + 1 dynamical flavors. We report preliminary results, which show reasonable agreement with leading order chiral perturbation theory for lattice spacing less than 0.1 fm. The total topological charge, however, shows strong persistence over Monte Carlo time.
We describe the construction of a high performance parallel computer composed of PC components, as well as the performance test in lattice QCD.
We use the recently proposed node decimation algorithm for blocking dynamical geometries to investigate a class of models, with central charge greater than unity, coupled to 2D gravity. We demonstrate that the blocking preserves the fractal structure of the surfaces.