Improved lattice fermion action for heavy quarks

We develop an improved lattice action for heavy quarks based on Brillouin-type fermions, that have excellent energy-momentum dispersion relation. The leading discretization errors of $O(a)$ and $O(a^2)$ are eliminated at tree-level. We carry out a scaling study of this improved Brillouin fermion action on quenched lattices by calculating the charmonium energy-momentum dispersion relation and hyperfine splitting. We present a comparison to standard Wilson fermions and domain-wall fermions.

Using analytic continuation for the hadronic vacuum polarization computation

We present two examples of applications of the analytic continuation method for computing the hadronic vacuum polarization function in space- and time-like momentum regions. These examples are the Adler function and the leading order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. We comment on the feasibility of the analytic continuation method and provide an outlook for possible further applications.

Computing the hadronic vacuum polarization function by analytic continuation

We propose a method to compute the hadronic vacuum polarization function on the lattice at continuous values of photon momenta bridging between the spacelike and timelike regions. We provide two independent demonstrations to show that this method leads to the desired hadronic vacuum polarization function in Minkowski spacetime. We show with the example of the leading-order QCD correction to the muon anomalous magnetic moment that this approach can provide a valuable alternative method for calculations of physical quantities where the hadronic vacuum polarization function enters.

Lattice QCD in Collision

In this talk, I present my personal view on the status of lattice QCD calculations. I emphasize the role played by the chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) in analyzing the lattice data of various physical quantities, including chiral condensate, topological susceptibility, and pion mass and decay constant. I then discuss on the status of determination of fundamental parameters and other quantities of phenomenological interest.

Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking on the lattice

Using lattice QCD we study the spectrum of low-lying fermion eigenmodes. According to the Banks-Casher relation, accumulation of the low-mode is responsible for the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry in the QCD vacuum. On the lattice we use the overlap fermion formulation that preserves exact chiral symmetry. This is essential for the study of low-lying eigenmode distributions. Through a detailed comparison with the expectations from chiral perturbation theory beyond the leading order, we confirm the senario of the spontaneous symmetry breaking and determine some of the low energy constants. We also discuss on other related physical quantities, which can be studied on the lattice with exact chiral symmetry.

Physics results from dynamical overlap fermion simulations

I summarize the physics results obtained from large-scale dynamical overlap fermion simulations by the JLQCD and TWQCD collaborations. The numerical simulations are performed at a fixed global topological sector; the physics results in the theta-vacuum is reconstructed by correcting the finite volume effect, for which the measurement of the topological susceptibility is crucial. Physics applications we studied so far include a calculation of chiral condensate, pion mass, decay constant, form factors, as well as (vector and axial-vector) vacuum polarization functions and nucleon sigma term.