We analyze the systematic errors made when using the generalized eigenvalue problem to extract energies and matrix elements in lattice gauge theory. Effective theories such as HQET are also discussed. Numerical results are shown for the extraction of
ground-state and excited B-meson masses and the ground-state decay constant in the static approximation.
We present rigorous upper and lower bounds for the zero-momentum gluon propagator D(0) of Yang-Mills theories in terms of the average value of the gluon field. This allows us to perform a controlled extrapolation of lattice data to infinite volume, s
howing that the infrared limit of the Landau-gauge gluon propagator in SU(2) gauge theory is finite and nonzero in three and in four space-time dimensions. In the two-dimensional case we find D(0) = 0, in agreement with Ref. [1]. We suggest an explanation for these results. We note that our discussion is general, although we only apply our analysis to pure gauge theory in Landau gauge. Simulations have been performed on the IBM supercomputer at the University of Sao Paulo.
The infrared behavior of gluon and ghost propagators in Yang-Mills theories is of central importance for understanding quark and gluon confinement in QCD. While simulations of pure SU(3) gauge theory correspond to the physical case in the limit of in
finite quark mass, the SU(2) case (i.e. pure two-color QCD) is usually employed as a simplification, in the hope that qualitative features be the same as for the SU(3) case. Here we carry out the first comparative study of lattice (Landau) propagators for these two gauge groups. Our data were especially produced with equivalent lattice parameters in order to allow a careful comparison of the two cases. We find very good agreement between SU(2) ans SU(3) propagators, showing that in the IR limit the equivalence of the two cases is quantitative, at least down to about 1 GeV. Our results suggest that the infrared behavior of these propagators is independent of the gauge group SU(N_c), as predicted by Schwinger-Dyson equations.
