Quark mass dependence of pseudoscalar masses and decay constants

We present results of a lattice simulation of quantum chromodynamics with two degenerate flavors of dynamic Wilson fermions at $6/g^2=5.3$ at each of two dynamical fermion hopping parameters, $\kappa=0.1670$ and 0.1675, corresponding to pion masses in lattice units of about 0.45 and 0.31. The simulations include three other values of valence quark mass, in addition to the dynamical quarks. We present calculations of masses and of the decay constants of vector mesons and of ps...

We fit lattice-QCD data for light-pseudoscalar masses and decay constants, from HISQ configurations generated by MILC, to SU(3) staggered chiral perturbation theory. At present such fits have rather high values of chi^2/d.o.f., possibly due to the lack of ensembles with lighter-than-physical sea strange-quark masses. We propose solutions to this problem for future work. We also perform simple linear interpolations near the physical point on two ensembles with different lattic...

We present the results of a partially quenched lattice QCD calculation of light quark masses with $N_f=2$ degenerate dynamical flavors. Numerical simulations are carried out using the plaquette gauge action and the Wilson quark action at $\beta = 5.8$ ($a^{-1} \simeq 3.2\gev$). The spatial extension of the $24^3 \times 48$ lattice is about 1.5 fm. Configurations have been generated at four values of the sea quark masses, for which the ratio of pseudoscalar over vector meson m...

We report on determinations of the low-energy constants alpha5 and alpha8 in the effective chiral Lagrangian at O(p^4), using lattice simulations with N_f=2 flavours of dynamical quarks. Precise knowledge of these constants is required to test the hypothesis whether or not the up-quark is massless. Our results are obtained by studying the quark mass dependence of suitably defined ratios of pseudoscalar meson masses and matrix elements. Although comparisons with an earlier stu...

The ongoing and planned experimental activities with direct reference to light unflavoured pseudoscalar mesons motivate a new theoretical study regarding their properties. An overview including details on new precise calculations is presented.

We discuss simulations with different lattice Dirac operators for sea and valence quarks. A goal of such a "mixed" action approach is to probe deeper the chiral regime of QCD by enabling simulations with light valence quarks. This is achieved by using chiral fermions as valence quarks while computationally inexpensive fermions are used in the sea sector. Specifically, we consider Wilson sea quarks and Ginsparg-Wilson valence quarks. The local Symanzik action for this mixed th...

Lattice attempts to compute the leptonic decay constants of heavy-light pseudoscalar mesons are described. I give a short historical overview of such attempts and then discuss some current calculations. I focus on three of the most important sources of systematic error: the extrapolation to the continuum, the chiral extrapolation in light quark mass, and the effects of quenching. I briefly discuss the ``bag parameters'' $B_B$ and $B_{B_s}$, and then conclude with my expectati...

We present results for $f_B$, $f_{B_s}$, $f_D$, $f_{D_s}$ and their ratios in the presence of two flavors of light sea quarks ($N_f=2$). We use Wilson light valence quarks and Wilson and static heavy valence quarks; the sea quarks are simulated with staggered fermions. Additional quenched simulations with nonperturbatively improved clover fermions allow us to improve our control of the continuum extrapolation. For our central values the masses of the sea quarks are not extrap...

We determine the masses and decay constants of pseudoscalar mesons $ D $, $ D_s $, and $ K $ in quenched lattice QCD with exact chiral symmetry. For 100 gauge configurations generated with single-plaquette action at $ \beta = 6.1 $ on the $ 20^3 \times 40 $ lattice, we compute point-to-point quark propagators for 30 quark masses in the range $ 0.03 \le m_q a \le 0.80 $, and measure the time-correlation functions of pseudoscalar and vector mesons. The inverse lattice spacing $...

We discuss insights that may be drawn from our recent 2 flavour O(a)--improved Wilson quark simulations. We discuss the evidence of the onset of chiral logarithms in the pion decay constant. An overview is given of current extrapolation methods and a modification of chiral perturbation theory is presented as an approach for sensibly extrapolating to the physical quark masses.