arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jack Laiho.
We present a calculation of the form factor for B -> D* l nu using a 2+1 improved staggered action for the light quarks (on the MILC configurations), and the Fermilab action for the heavy quarks. The form factor is computed at zero recoil using a new double ratio method which yields the form factor more directly than previous approaches.
We present a preliminary calculation of B_K using domain-wall valence quarks and 2+1 flavors of improved staggered sea quarks. Both the size of the residual quark mass, which measures the amount of chiral symmetry breaking, and of the mixed meson splitting Delta_mix, a measure of taste-symmetry breaking, show that discretization effects are under control in our mixed action lattice simulations. We show preliminary data for pseudoscalar meson masses, decay constants and B_K. We discuss general issues associated with the chiral extrapolation of lattice data, and, as an example, present a preliminary chiral and continuum extrapolation of f_pi. The quality of our data shows that the good chiral properties of domain-wall quarks, in combination with the light sea quark masses and multiple lattice spacings available with the MILC staggered configurations, will allow for a precise determination of B_K.
We study the behavior of the isovector scalar correlator, which is particularly sensitive to lattice artifacts, using domain-wall valence quarks on a staggered sea (generated by the MILC collaboration). We analyze this according to the prediction from chiral perturbation theory determined by Prelovsek, which indicates that the leading unitarity violations come from taste breaking effects. We show that our data behaves in the way predicted by Prelovsek, thus verifying that the largest contribution to the violations of unitarity which arise at finite lattice spacing can be described by the mixed-action chiral perturbation theory.
We calculate the kaon B-parameter, B_K, in chiral perturbation theory for a partially quenched, mixed action theory with Ginsparg-Wilson valence quarks and staggered sea quarks. We find that the resulting expression is similar to that in the continuum, and in fact has only two additional unknown parameters. At one-loop order, taste-symmetry violations in the staggered sea sector only contribute to flavor-disconnected diagrams by generating an O(a^2) shift to the masses of taste-singlet sea-sea mesons. Lattice discretization errors also give rise to an analytic term which shifts the tree-level value of B_K by an amount of O(a^2). This term, however, is not strictly due to taste-breaking, and is therefore also present in the expression for B_K for pure G-W lattice fermions. We also present a numerical study of the mixed B_K expression in order to demonstrate that both discretization errors and finite volume effects are small and under control on the MILC improved staggered lattices.
We calculate the B -> D and B -> D* form factors at zero recoil in Staggered Chiral Perturbation Theory. We consider heavy-light mesons in which only the light (u, d, or s) quark is staggered; current lattice simulations generally use a highly improved action such as the Fermilab or NRQCD action for the heavy (b or c) quark. We work to lowest nontrivial order in the heavy quark expansion and to one-loop in the chiral expansion. We present results for a partially quenched theory with three sea quarks in which there are no mass degeneracies (the "1+1+1" theory) and for a partially quenched theory in which the u and d sea quark masses are equal (the "2+1" theory). We also present results for full (2+1) QCD, along with a numerical estimate of the size of staggered discretization errors. Finally, we calculate the finite volume corrections to the form factors and estimate their numerical size in current lattice simulations.
An unquenched calculation of the form factor for $B\to D^* l ν$ is needed to improve the determination of $|V_{cb}|$. The MILC lattices, computed with a 2+1 improved staggered action for the light quarks, are well suited to this purpose. The relevant staggered chiral perturbation theory (SChPT) must be known in order to correctly account for the "taste" breaking discretization effects associated with the staggered quarks to NLO in $1/ m_{D^*}$. This SChPT calculation is presented.
We show that it is possible to construct $ε^\prime/ε$ to NLO using partially quenched chiral perturbation theory (PQChPT) from amplitudes that are computable on the lattice. We demonstrate that none of the needed amplitudes require three-momentum on the lattice for either the full theory or the partially quenched theory; non-degenerate quark masses suffice. Furthermore, we find that the electro-weak penguin ($ΔI=3/2$ and 1/2) contributions to $ε^\prime/ε$ in PQChPT can be determined to NLO using only degenerate ($m_K=m_π$) $K\toπ$ computations without momentum insertion. Issues pertaining to power divergent contributions, originating from mixing with lower dimensional operators, are addressed. Direct calculations of $K\toππ$ at unphysical kinematics are plagued with enhanced finite volume effects in the (partially) quenched theory, but in simulations when the sea quark mass is equal to the up and down quark mass the enhanced finite volume effects vanish to NLO in PQChPT. In embedding the QCD penguin left-right operator onto PQChPT an ambiguity arises, as first emphasized by Golterman and Pallante. With one version (the "PQS") of the QCD penguin, the inputs needed from the lattice for constructing $K\toππ$ at NLO in PQChPT coincide with those needed for the full theory. Explicit expressions for the finite logarithms emerging from our NLO analysis to the above amplitudes are also given.
Quenching effects in strong penguin matrix elements are investigated. A lattice determination of $α_q^{NS}$, the constant that appears in the quenched ChPT relevant for the lattice analysis of $K\toππ$ matrix elements, shows that this constant is large. The original RBC analysis of $Q_6$ matrix elements is revisited in light of this result. Also, the numerical effects of choosing the singlet Golterman-Pallante method of quenching $Q_6$ is investigated.
Results at NLO in (PQ)ChPT for extracting $ε^\prime/ε$ from lattice data are discussed.
We show that lattice calculation of K --> pi pi and $epe$ amplitudes for (8,1) and (27,1) operators to O(p^4) in chiral perturbation theory is feasible when one uses K --> pi pi computations at the two unphysical kinematics allowed by the Maiani-Testa theorem, along with the usual (computable) two and three point functions, namely K --> 0, K --> pi (with momentum) and K - bar{K}. Explicit expressions for the finite logarithms emerging from our O(p^4) analysis to the above amplitudes are also given.