The Low-Lying Dirac Spectrum of Staggered Quarks

We investigate and clarify the role of topology and the issues surrounding the epsilon regime for staggered quarks. We study unimproved and improved staggered quark Dirac operators on quenched lattice QCD gluon backgrounds generated using a Symanzik-improved gluon action. For the improved Dirac operators we find a clear separation of the spectrum into would-be zero modes and others. The number of would-be zero modes depends on the topological charge as predicted by the continuum Index Theorem, and the expectation values of their chirality are large for the most improved actions (approx 0.7). The remaining modes have low chirality and show clear signs of clustering into quartets that become degenerate in the continuum limit. We demonstrate that the lattice spacing and volume dependence of the eigenvalues follow expectations. Furthermore, the non-zero modes follow the random matrix theory predictions for all topological charge sectors. The values of the chiral condensate extracted from fits to the theoretical distributions are consistent with each other, and with the results obtained from the total density of eigenvalues using the Banks-Casher relation. We conclude that staggered quarks respond correctly to QCD topology when both fermion and gauge actions are improved.Comment: 17 pages, a few typos corrected, part of one figure change

The Upsilon spectrum and m_b from full lattice QCD

We show results for the Upsilon spectrum calculated in lattice QCD including for the first time vacuum polarization effects for light u and d quarks as well as s quarks. We use gluon field configurations generated by the MILC collaboration. The calculations compare the results for a variety of u and d quark masses, as well as making a comparison to quenched results (in which quark vacuum polarisation is ignored) and results with only u and d quarks. The b quarks in the Upsilon are treated in lattice Nonrelativistic QCD through NLO in an expansion in the velocity of the b quark. We concentrate on accurate results for orbital and radial splittings where we see clear agreement with experiment once u, d and s quark vacuum polarisation effects are included. This now allows a consistent determination of the parameters of QCD. We demonstrate this consistency through the agreement of the Upsilon and B spectrum using the same lattice bare b quark mass. A one-loop matching to continuum QCD gives a value for the b quark mass in full lattice QCD for the first time. We obtain m_b^{\bar{MS}}(m_b^{\bar{MS}}) = 4.4(3) GeV. We are able to give physical results for the heavy quark potential parameters, r_0 = 0.469(7) fm and r_1 = 0.321(5) fm. Results for the fine structure in the spectrum and the Upsilon leptonic width are also presented. We predict the Upsilon - eta_b splitting to be 61(14) MeV, the Upsilon^{\prime} - eta_b^{\prime} splitting as 30(19) MeV and the splitting between the h_b and the spin-average of the chi_b states to be less than 6 MeV. Improvements to these calculations that will be made in the near future are discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures. Version to be published. Minor changes made and typographical errors corrected. Experimental leptonic widths updated in section

The B Meson Decay Constant from Unquenched Lattice QCD

We present determinations of the B meson decay constant f_B and of the ratio f_{B_s}/f_B using the MILC collaboration unquenched gauge configurations which include three flavors of light sea quarks. The mass of one of the sea quarks is kept around the strange quark mass, and we explore a range in masses for the two lighter sea quarks down to m_s/8. The heavy b quark is simulated using Nonrelativistic QCD, and both the valence and sea light quarks are represented by the highly improved (AsqTad) staggered quark action. The good chiral properties of the latter action allow for a much smoother chiral extrapolation to physical up and down quarks than has been possible in the past. We find f_B = 216(9)(19)(4) (6) MeV and f_{B_s} /f_B = 1.20(3)(1).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Mass of the B_c Meson in Three-Flavor Lattice QCD

We use lattice QCD to predict the mass of the $B_c$ meson. We use the MILC Collaboration's ensembles of lattice gauge fields, which have a quark sea with two flavors much lighter than a third. Our final result is $m_{B_c}=6304\pm12^{+18}_{- 0} MeV$. The first error bar is a sum in quadrature of statistical and systematic uncertainties, and the second is an estimate of heavy-quark discretization effects.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; shorten to fit in PRL; published versio

Resummation of transverse energy in vector boson and Higgs boson production at hadron colliders

We compute the resummed hadronic transverse energy (E_T) distribution due to initial-state QCD radiation in vector boson and Higgs boson production at hadron colliders. The resummed exponent, parton distributions and coefficient functions are treated consistently to next-to-leading order. The results are matched to fixed-order calculations at large E_T and compared with parton-shower Monte Carlo predictions at Tevatron and LHC energies.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure

The Hindered M1 Radiative Decay Υ(2S) → ηb(1S)γ from Lattice NRQCD

We present a calculation of the hindered M$1$ $\Upsilon(2S) \to \eta_b(1S) \gamma$ decay rate using lattice non-relativistic QCD. The calculation includes spin-dependent relativistic corrections to the NRQCD action through $\mathcal{O}(v^6)$ in the quark's relative velocity, relativistic corrections to the leading order current which mediates the transition through the quark's magnetic moment, radiative corrections to the leading spin-magnetic coupling and for the first time a full error budget. We also use gluon field ensembles at multiple lattice spacing values, all of which include $u$, $d$, $s$ and $c$ quark vacuum polarisation. Our result for the branching fraction is $\mathcal{B}(\Upsilon(2S)\to\eta_b(1S)\gamma) = 5.4(1.8)\times 10^{-4}$, which agrees with the current experimental value.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from APS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.09450

Predictions from Lattice QCD

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 $D\to Kl\nu$ 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.Comment: v1: talk given at the International Conference on QCD and Hadronic Physics, Beijing, June 16-20, 2005; v2: poster presented at the XXIIIrd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Dublin, July 25-3

The order of the quantum chromodynamics transition predicted by the standard model of particle physics

We determine the nature of the QCD transition using lattice calculations for physical quark masses. Susceptibilities are extrapolated to vanishing lattice spacing for three physical volumes, the smallest and largest of which differ by a factor of five. This ensures that a true transition should result in a dramatic increase of the susceptibilities.No such behaviour is observed: our finite-size scaling analysis shows that the finite-temperature QCD transition in the hot early Universe was not a real phase transition, but an analytic crossover (involving a rapid change, as opposed to a jump, as the temperature varied). As such, it will be difficult to find experimental evidence of this transition from astronomical observations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

On the massive gluon propagator, the PT-BFM scheme and the low-momentum behaviour of decoupling and scaling DSE solutions

We study the low-momentum behaviour of Yang-Mills propagators obtained from Landau-gauge Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSE) in the PT-BFM scheme. We compare the ghost propagator numerical results with the analytical ones obtained by analyzing the low-momentum behaviour of the ghost propagator DSE in Landau gauge, assuming for the truncation a constant ghost-gluon vertex and a simple model for a massive gluon propagator. The asymptotic expression obtained for the regular or decoupling ghost dressing function up to the order ${\cal O}(q^2)$ is proven to fit pretty well the numerical PT-BFM results. Furthermore, when the size of the coupling renormalized at some scale approaches some critical value, the numerical PT-BFM propagators tend to behave as the scaling ones. We also show that the scaling solution, implying a diverging ghost dressing function, cannot be a DSE solution in the PT-BFM scheme but an unattainable limiting case.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figs., 2 tabs (updated version to be published in JHEP

Anomalous tqγtq\gamma coupling effects in exclusive radiative B-meson decays

The top-quark FCNC processes will be searched for at the CERN LHC, which are correlated with the B-meson decays. In this paper, we study the effects of top-quark anomalous interactions $tq\gamma$ in the exclusive radiative $B\to K^*\gamma$ and $B\to\rho\gamma$ decays. With the current experimental data of the branching ratios, the direct CP and the isospin asymmetries, bounds on the coupling $\kappa_{tcR}^{\gamma}$ from $B\to K^*\gamma$ and $\kappa_{tuR}^{\gamma}$ from $B\to \rho\gamma$ decays are derived, respectively. The bound on $|\kappa_{tcR}^{\gamma}|$ from ${\mathcal B}(B\to K^{*}\gamma)$ is generally compatible with that from ${\mathcal B}(B\to X_{s}\gamma)$. However, the isospin asymmetry $\Delta(K^{*}\gamma)$ further restrict the phase of $\kappa_{tcR}^{\gamma}$, and the combined bound results in the upper limit, $\mathcal B(t\to c\gamma)<0.21$, which is lower than the CDF result. For real $\kappa_{tcR}^{\gamma}$, the upper bound on $\mathcal B(t\to c\gamma)$ is about of the same order as the $5\sigma$ discovery potential of ATLAS with an integrated luminosity of $10 {\rm fb}^{-1}$. For $B\to\rho\gamma$ decays, the NP contribution is enhanced by a large CKM factor $|V_{ud}/V_{td}|$, and the constraint on $tu\gamma$ coupling is rather restrictive, $\mathcal B(t\to u\gamma)<1.44\times 10^{-5}$. With refined measurements to be available at the LHCb and the future super-B factories, we can get close correlations between $B\to V \gamma$ and the rare $t\to q\gamma$ decays, which will be studied directly at the LHC ATLAS and CMS.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, pdflate