arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Silvano Simula.
We discuss the general properties of the $B$-meson decay form factors $F(q^2,q'^2)$, describing $B$-meson decays induced by two currents, e.g., $B$-decays into four leptons in the final state. We study the analytic properties of these complicated objects and identify those regions of $q^2$ and $q'^2$, where perturbative QCD can be applied for obtaining predictions for the physical form factors.
We present a preliminary study of the pion, kaon and D-meson masses and decay constants in isosymmetric QCD, as well as a preliminary result for the light-quark renormalized mass. The analysis is based on the gauge ensembles produced by ETMC with $N_f=2+1+1$ flavours of Wilson-clover twisted mass quarks, spanning a range of lattice spacings from $\sim0.10$ to $0.07$ fm and include configurations at the physical pion point on lattices with linear size up to $L~\sim~5.6$~fm
The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $a_μ$ is one of the most accurate quantities in Particle Physics. The long-standing discrepancy of about $3.7$ standard deviations between the experimental value and the prediction of the Standard Model could represent an intriguing indication of New Physics. The experiments at Fermilab (E989) and at J-PARC (E34) aim at reducing significantly the experimental uncertainty, thus making the theoretical one due to hadronic corrections the main limitation of this stringent test of the Standard Model. In this contribution we present the results of a first-principles lattice calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) contribution to $a_μ$, including electromagnetic and $SU(2)$-breaking corrections. Our determination, $a_μ^{\rm HVP} = 682.0 ~ (18.7) \cdot 10^{-10}$, turns out to be in agreement with recent theoretical determinations based on the dispersive analyses of the experimental cross section data for the annihilation process $e^+e^- \to hadrons$. Furthermore, we provide for the first time a lattice estimate for the missing part of $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ not covered in the MUonE experiment, $\left[a_μ^{\rm HVP}\right]_> = 91.6 ~ (2.0) \cdot 10^{-10}$.
In this contribution we present a lattice calculation of the leading-order electromagnetic and strong isospin-breaking (IB) corrections to the quark-connected hadronic-vacuum-polarization (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The results are obtained adopting the RM123 approach in the quenched-QED approximation and using the QCD gauge configurations generated by the ETM Collaboration with $N_f = 2+1+1$ dynamical quarks, at three values of the lattice spacing ($a \simeq 0.062, 0.082, 0.089$ fm), at several lattice volumes and with pion masses between $\simeq 210$ and $\simeq 450$ MeV. After the extrapolations to the physical pion mass and to the continuum and infinite-volume limits the contributions of the light, strange and charm quarks are respectively equal to $δa_μ^{\rm HVP}(ud) = 7.1 ~ (2.5) \cdot 10^{-10}$, $δa_μ^{\rm HVP}(s) = -0.0053 ~ (33) \cdot 10^{-10}$ and $δa_μ^{\rm HVP}(c) = 0.0182 ~ (36) \cdot 10^{-10}$. At leading order in $α_{em}$ and $(m_d - m_u) / Λ_{QCD}$ we obtain $δa_μ^{\rm HVP}(udsc) = 7.1 ~ (2.9) \cdot 10^{-10}$, which is currently the most accurate determination of the IB corrections to $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$.
The precision of lattice QCD computations of many quantities has reached such a precision that isospin-breaking corrections, including electromagnetism, must be included if further progress is to be made in extracting fundamental information, such as the values of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements, from experimental measurements. We discuss the framework for including radiative corrections in leptonic and semileptonic decays of hadrons, including the treatment of infrared divergences. We briefly review isospin breaking in leptonic decays and present the first numerical results for the ratio $Γ(K_{\mu2})/Γ(π_{\mu2})$ in which these corrections have been included. We also discuss the additional theoretical issues which arise when including electromagnetic corrections to semileptonic decays, such as $K_{\ell3}$ decays. The separate definition of strong isospin-breaking effects and those due to electromagnetism requires a convention. We define and advocate conventions based on hadronic schemes, in which a chosen set of hadronic quantities, hadronic masses for example, are set equal in QCD and in QCD+QED. This is in contrast with schemes which have been largely used to date, in which the renormalised $α_s(μ)$ and quark masses are set equal in QCD and in QCD+QED in some renormalisation scheme and at some scale $μ$.
We explore, by a rather peculiar limit of QCD sum rules subject to a Borel transformation (realized by allowing the related Borel mass parameter to approach infinity), how the small difference of the masses of up and down quark translates into the leptonic decay constants of pseudoscalar or vector heavy-light mesons. For the charmed and bottom mesons, we find that the decay constants of their lowest-lying charged and neutral representatives should differ by an amount of the order of 1 MeV.
We present a preliminary lattice calculation of the leading-order electromagnetic and strong isospin-breaking corrections to the Hadronic Vacuum Polarization (HVP) contribution of the light quarks to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The results are obtained in the quenched-$QED$ approximation using the $QCD$ gauge configurations generated by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration (ETMC) with $N_f = 2 + 1 + 1$ dynamical quarks, at three values of the lattice spacing varying from $0.089$ to $0.062 ~ \mbox{fm}$, at several lattice volumes and with pion masses in the range $M_π\simeq 220 ÷490 ~ \mbox{MeV}$.
Applying the QCD sum-rule machinery in the so-called local-duality shape to heavy-light mesons reveals that, as a consequence of the non-zero mass gap between up and down quarks, the leptonic decay constants of the neutral and charged versions of the $D,$ $D^\ast,$ $B$ and $B^\ast$ mesons differ by approximately 1 MeV.
We discuss the leptonic decay constants of heavy--light mesons by means of Borel QCD sum~rules in the local-duality (LD) limit of infinitely large Borel mass parameter. In this limit, for an appropriate choice of the invariant structures in the QCD correlation functions, all vacuum-condensate contributions vanish and all nonperturbative effects are contained in only one quantity, the effective threshold. We study properties of the LD effective thresholds in the limits of large heavy-quark mass $m_Q$ and small light-quark mass $m_q$. In the heavy-quark limit, we clarify the role played by the radiative corrections in the effective threshold for reproducing the pQCD expansion of the decay constants of pseudoscalar and vector mesons. We show that the dependence of the meson decay constants on $m_q$ arises predominantly (at the level of 70--80%) from the calculable $m_q$-dependence of the perturbative spectral densities. Making use of the lattice QCD results for the decay constants of nonstrange and strange pseudoscalar and vector heavy mesons, we obtain solid predictions for the decay constants of heavy--light mesons as functions of $m_q$ in the range from a few to 100 MeV and evaluate the corresponding strong isospin-breaking effects: $f_{D^+} - f_{D^0}=(0.96 \pm 0.09) ~ {\rm MeV}$, $f_{D^{*+}} - f_{D^{*0}}= (1.18 \pm 0.35) ~ {\rm MeV}$, $f_{B^0} - f_{B^+}=(1.01 \pm 0.10) ~ {\rm MeV}$, $f_{B^{*0}} - f_{B^{*+}}=(0.89 \pm 0.30) ~ {\rm MeV}$.
We present the QCD simulation of the first gauge ensemble of two degenerate light quarks, a strange and a charm quark with all quark masses tuned to their physical values within the twisted mass fermion formulation. Results for the pseudoscalar masses and decay constants confirm that the produced ensemble is indeed at the physical parameters of the theory. This conclusion is corroborated by a complementary analysis in the baryon sector. We examine cutoff and isospin breaking effects and demonstrate that they are suppressed through the presence of a clover term in the action.
Evaluation of Borelized QCD sum rules in the so-called local-duality limit of infinitely large Borel mass parameter provides an alternate route for extraction of the dependence of the decay constants of heavy-light mesons on the mass $m_q$ of the involved light quark $q$: For appropriate choices of the two-point correlation functions of currents interpolating the hadrons under study, the local-duality limit forces all nonperturbative contributions parametrized by vacuum condensates to such kind of correlator to vanish. As a consequence, the sought $m_q$ dependence of the heavy-light meson decay constants proves to be controlled primarily by the correlator contributions from perturbative QCD. Our knowledge of the analytic behaviour of the latter as functions of $m_q$ enables us to derive the $m_q$ dependence of the decay constants of both pseudoscalar and vector heavy-light mesons, for which we estimate strong isospin breaking to be of the order of 1 MeV for both charm and beauty sectors.
We present a new lattice determination of some of the parameters appearing both in the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) analysis of the inclusive semileptonic $B$-meson decays and in the Heavy Quark Expansion (HQE) of the pseudoscalar (PS) and vector (V) heavy-light meson masses. We perform a lattice QCD (LQCD) computation of PS and V heavy-light meson masses for heavy-quark masses $m_h$ in the range from $m_c^{\rm phys}$ to $\simeq 4m_b^{\rm phys}$. We employed the $N_f = 2+1+1$ gauge configurations of the European Twisted Mass Collaboration (ETMC) at three values of the lattice spacing $a \simeq (0.062, 0.082, 0.089)$ fm with pion masses in the range $M_π\simeq (210 - 450)$ MeV. The heavy-quark mass is simulated directly on the lattice up to $\simeq 3m_c^{\rm phys}$. The interpolation to the physical $m_b^{\rm phys}$ is performed using the ETMC ratio method and adopting the kinetic mass scheme. We obtain $m_b^{\rm kin}(1~\mbox{GeV}) = 4.61 (20)$ GeV ($\overline{m}_b(\overline{m}_b) = 4.26 (18)$ GeV in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme). The lattice data are analyzed in terms of the HQE and the matrix elements of dimension-4 and dimension-5 operators are extracted with good precision, namely: $\overlineΛ = 0.552 (26)$ GeV, $μ_π^2 = 0.321 (32)$ GeV$^2$ and $μ_G^2(m_b) = 0.253 (25)$ GeV$^2$. The data also allow for an estimate of the dimension-6 operator matrix elements.
We present a preliminary lattice calculation of the $D \to π$ and $D \to K$ tensor form factors $f_T(q^2)$ as a function of the squared 4-momentum transfer $q^2$. ETMC recently computed the vector and scalar form factors $f_+(q^2)$ and $f_0(q^2)$ describing $D \to π(K) \ell ν$ semileptonic decays analyzing the vector current and the scalar density. The study of the weak tensor current, which is directly related to the tensor form factor, completes the set of hadronic matrix element regulating the transition between these two pseudoscalar mesons within and beyond the Standard Model where a non-zero tensor coupling is possible. Our analysis is based on the gauge configurations produced by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with $N_f = 2 + 1 + 1$ flavors of dynamical quarks. We simulated at three different values of the lattice spacing and with pion masses as small as 210 MeV and with the valence heavy quark in the mass range from $\simeq 0.7\, m_c$ to $\simeq 1.2\, m_c$. The matrix element of the tensor current are determined for a plethora of kinematical conditions in which parent and child mesons are either moving or at rest. As for the vector and scalar form factors, Lorentz symmetry breaking due to hypercubic effects is clearly observed in the data. We will present preliminary results on the removal of such hypercubic lattice effects.
We present a lattice determination of the vector and scalar form factors of the $D\toπ(K)\ellν$ semileptonic decays, which are relevant for the extraction of the CKM matrix elements $|V_{cd}|$ and $|V_{cs}|$ from experimental data. Our analysis is based on the gauge configurations produced by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with $N_f=2+1+1$ flavors of dynamical quarks. We simulated at three different values of the lattice spacing and with pion masses as small as 210 MeV. The matrix elements of both vector and scalar currents are determined for a plenty of kinematical conditions in which parent and child mesons are either moving or at rest. Lorentz symmetry breaking due to hypercubic effects is clearly observed in the data and included in the decomposition of the current matrix elements in terms of additional form factors. After the extrapolations to the physical pion mass and to the continuum limit the vector and scalar form factors are determined in the whole kinematical region from $q^2 = 0$ up to $q^2_{\rm max} = (M_D - M_{π(K)})^2$ accessible in the experiments, obtaining a good overall agreement with experiments, except in the region at high values of $q^2$ where some deviations are visible.
QCD sum rules are analytic predictions of hadron observables from quantum chromodynamics. In the so-called local-duality limit of their Borel-transformed form, all nonperturbative contributions are encompassed by just a single quantity, an effective threshold beyond which, by assumption, all hadronic contributions are reliably described by perturbative QCD. Reconstructing its quark-mass dependence enables us to investigate the differences of the leptonic decay constants of heavy-light mesons effectuated by the tiny isospin-violating discrepancy of the masses of up and down quarks. By and large, our findings enjoy excellent agreement with the outcomes of earlier studies, the only exception being a lattice-QCD prediction for the $B$ mesons, where we find dramatic disagreement.
We present a study of the strong isospin-breaking (IB) effect, due in QCD to the difference between $u$- and $d$-quark masses, in the leptonic decay constants of charmed and beauty pseudoscalar and vector mesons using the method of QCD sum rules. We apply the sum-rule analysis to the decay constants of mesons containing one heavy quark and one light quark with the light mass in the range from the average $u/d$ quark mass to the strange-quark mass. We then analyse the dependence of the decay constants on the light quark mass and extract with good accuracy the IB ratios of decay constants at leading order in the mass difference $(m_d - m_u)$, obtaining: $(f_{D^+} - f_{D^0}) / f_{D} = 0.0047 (6)$, $(f_{D^{*+}} - f_{D^{*0}}) / f_{D^*} = 0.0068 (9)$, $(f_{B^0} - f_{B^+}) / f_{B} = 0.0047 (6)$, and $(f_{B^{*0}} - f_{B^{*+}}) / f_{B^*} = 0.0045 (5)$, which yield: $f_{D^+} - f_{D^0} = 0.97 \pm 0.13$ MeV, $f_{D^{*+}} - f_{D^{*0}} = 1.73 \pm 0.27$ MeV, $f_{B^0} - f_{B^+} = 0.90 \pm 0.13$ MeV, $f_{B^{*0}} - f_{B^{*+}} = 0.81 \pm 0.11$ MeV. In the case of the $D$-meson our finding is consistent with recent lattice QCD results, whereas it is much lower in the case of the $B$-meson showing a tension of $\approx 3$ standard deviations.
We present an investigation of pion structure based on ETMC $N_f=2$ and $N_f=2+1+1$ twisted mass configurations at maximal twist. We compute the first moment of the quark momentum fraction of the pion, $\langle x \rangle$ and the electromagnetic form factor, $F_π(Q^2)$. For the latter, momentum is injected using twisted boundary conditions and the calculation is carried out directly at the physical pion mass. We find that our data are consistent with vector meson dominance and experimental data in the region of small momentum transfer. For $\langle x \rangle$, we find that our chirally and continuum extrapolated result is compatible with its phenomenological value.
Compared with lattice QCD, isospin breaking of heavy-meson decay constants from QCD sum rules agrees for $D$ mesons but disagrees (by a factor of four) for $B$ mesons.