No Arabic abstract
We present the first calculation within lattice QCD of excited light meson resonances with $J^{PC} = 1^{--}$, $2^{--}$ and $3^{--}$. Working with an exact SU(3) flavor symmetry, for the singlet representation of pseudoscalar-vector scattering, we find two $1^{--}$ resonances, a lighter broad state and a heavier narrow state, a broad $2^{--}$ resonance decaying in both $P$- and $F$-waves, and a narrow $3^{--}$ state. We present connections to experimental $omega^star_J, phi^star_J$ resonances decaying into $pi rho$, $Kbar{K}^*$, $eta omega$ and other final states.
We calculate the bag parameters for neutral $B$-meson mixing in and beyond the Standard Model, in full four-flavour lattice QCD for the first time. We work on gluon field configurations that include the effect of $u$, $d$, $s$ and $c$ sea quarks with the Highly Improved Staggered Quark (HISQ) action at three values of the lattice spacing and with three $u/d$ quark masses going down to the physical value. The valence $b$ quarks use the improved NRQCD action and the valence light quarks, the HISQ action. Our analysis was blinded. Our results for the bag parameters for all five operators are the most accurate to date. For the Standard Model operator between $B_s$ and $B_d$ mesons we find: $hat{B}_{B_s}=1.232(53)$, $hat{B}_{B_d}=1.222(61)$. Combining our results with lattice QCD calculations of the decay constants using HISQ quarks from the Fermilab/MILC collaboration and with experimental values for $B_s$ and $B_d$ oscillation frequencies allows determination of the CKM elements $V_{ts}$ and $V_{td}$. We find $V_{ts} = 0.04189(93)$, $V_{td} = 0.00867(23)$ and $V_{ts}/V_{td} = 0.2071(27)$. Our results agree well (within $2sigma$) with values determined from CKM unitarity constraints based on tree-level processes (only). Using a ratio to $Delta M$ in which CKM elements cancel in the Standard Model, we determine the branching fractions ${text{Br}}(B_srightarrow mu^+mu^-) = 3.81(18) times 10^{-9}$ and ${text{Br}}(B_drightarrow mu^+mu^-) = 1.031(54) times 10^{-10}$. We also give results for matrix elements of the operators $R_0$, $R_1$ and $tilde{R}_1$ that contribute to neutral $B$-meson width differences.
We present the first determination of the binding energy of the $H$ dibaryon in the continuum limit of lattice QCD. The calculation is performed at five values of the lattice spacing $a$, using O($a$)-improved Wilson fermions at the SU(3)-symmetric point with $m_pi=m_Kapprox 420$ MeV. Energy levels are extracted by applying a variational method to correlation matrices of bilocal two-baryon interpolating operators computed using the distillation technique. Our analysis employs Luschers finite-volume quantization condition to determine the scattering phase shifts from the spectrum and vice versa, both above and below the two-baryon threshold. We perform global fits to the lattice spectra using parametrizations of the phase shift, supplemented by terms describing discretization effects, then extrapolate the lattice spacing to zero. The phase shift and the binding energy determined from it are found to be strongly affected by lattice artifacts. Our estimate of the binding energy in the continuum limit of three-flavor QCD is $B_H=3.97pm1.16_{rm stat}pm0.86_{rm syst}$ MeV.
We explore the use of optimized operators, designed to interpolate only a single meson eigenstate, in three-point correlation functions with a vector-current insertion. These operators are constructed as linear combinations in a large basis of meson interpolating fields using a variational analysis of matrices of two-point correlation functions. After performing such a determination at both zero and non-zero momentum, we compute three-point functions and are able to study radiative transition matrix elements featuring excited state mesons. The required two- and three-point correlation functions are efficiently computed using the distillation framework in which there is a factorization between quark propagation and operator construction, allowing for a large number of meson operators of definite momentum to be considered. We illustrate the method with a calculation using anisotopic lattices having three flavors of dynamical quark all tuned to the physical strange quark mass, considering form-factors and transitions of pseudoscalar and vector meson excitations. The dependence on photon virtuality for a number of form-factors and transitions is extracted and some discussion of excited-state phenomenology is presented.
We summarize our lattice QCD determinations of the pion-pion, pion-kaon and kaon-kaon s-wave scattering lengths at maximal isospin with a particular focus on the extrapolation to the physical point and the usage of next-to-leading order chiral perturbation theory to do so. We employ data at three values of the lattice spacing and pion masses ranging from around 230 MeV to around 450 MeV, applying Lueschers finite volume method to compute the scattering lengths. We find that leading order chiral perturbation theory is surprisingly close to our data even in the kaon-kaon case for our entire range of pion masses.
We calculate the leptonic decay constants of B_{(s)} and D_{(s)} mesons in lattice QCD using staggered light quarks and Fermilab bottom and charm quarks. We compute the heavy-light meson correlation functions on the MILC asqtad-improved staggered gauge configurations which include the effects of three light dynamical sea quarks. We simulate with several values of the light valence- and sea-quark masses (down to ~m_s/10) and at three lattice spacings (a ~ 0.15, 0.12, and 0.09 fm) and extrapolate to the physical up and down quark masses and the continuum using expressions derived in heavy-light meson staggered chiral perturbation theory. We renormalize the heavy-light axial current using a mostly nonperturbative method such that only a small correction to unity must be computed in lattice perturbation theory and higher-order terms are expected to be small. We obtain f_{B^+} = 196.9(8.9) MeV, f_{B_s} = 242.0(9.5) MeV, f_{D^+} = 218.9(11.3) MeV, f_{D_s} = 260.1(10.8) MeV, and the SU(3) flavor-breaking ratios f_{B_s}/f_{B} = 1.229(26) and f_{D_s}/f_{D} = 1.188(25), where the numbers in parentheses are the total statistical and systematic uncertainties added in quadrature.