The HAL QCD potential in $I=1$ $pi pi$ system with the $rho$ meson bound state

In this paper, we investigate the HAL QCD potential in the $I=1$ $pi pi$ scattering using the hybrid method for all-to-all propagators, in which a propagator is approximated by low-eigenmodes and the remaining high-eigenmode part is stochastically estimated. To verify the applicability of the hybrid method to systems containing quark creation$/$annihilation contributions such as the $rho$ meson, we calculate the $I=1$ $pipi$ potential with the 2+1 flavor gauge configurations on $16^3 times 32$ lattice at the lattice spacing $a approx 0.12$ fm and $(m_{pi},m_{rho}) approx (870, 1230)$ MeV, in which the $rho$ meson appears as a deeply-bound state. While we find that the naive stochastic evaluations for quark creation$/$annihilation contributions lead to extremely large statistical fluctuations, additional noise reduction methods enable us to obtain a sufficiently precise potential, which shows a strong attractive force. We also confirm that the binding energy and $k^3 cot delta$ obtained from our potential are roughly consistent with an existing $rho$ meson bound state, within a large systematic error associated with our calculation, whose possible origin is also discussed.

Study of the pion-pion scatterings with a combination of all-to-all propagators and the HAL QCD method

In this paper, we report recent developments of the HAL QCD method for two hadron systems which contain quark annihilation processes using all-to-all quark propagators. We employ the hybrid method for all-to-all propagators, which combines a low-mode spectral decomposition of the quark propagator and stochastic estimators for remaining high modes, to evaluate the HAL QCD potentials for the first time. Using this method, we investigate the $I= 1,2$ $pi pi$ scatterings at $m_{pi} approx 870$ MeV. In the $I=2$ study, we study how statistical fluctuations of the HAL QCD potentials are increased due to stochastic estimators in the hybrid method, compared with the conventional one without them. We find that we can reduce statistical fluctuations by dilutions of stochastic noises in order to obtain sufficiently precise results, which turn out to be consistent with conventional results without all-to-all propagators. In the $I=1$ $pi pi$ case, which contains quark annihilation processes, we find that statistical fluctuations are further enhanced due to noise contaminations in annihilation processes. We, however, confirm that we can also reduce such statistical fluctuations to obtain the potential with a reasonable precision as long as we further increase a degree of dilutions at a price of large numerical costs and take an appropriate scheme for the potential.

$I=2$ $pipi$ potential in the HAL QCD method with all-to-all propagators

In this paper, we perform the first application of the hybrid method (exact low modes plus stochastically estimated high modes) for all-to-all propagators to the HAL QCD method. We calculate the HAL QCD potentials in the $I=2$ $pipi$ scattering in order to see how statistical fluctuations of the potential behave under the hybrid method. All of the calculations are performed with the 2+1 flavor gauge configurations on $16^3 times 32$ lattice at the lattice spacing $a approx 0.12$ fm and $m_{pi} approx 870$ MeV. It is revealed that statistical errors for the potential are enhanced by stochastic noises introduced by the hybrid method, which, however, are shown to be reduced by increasing the level of dilutions, in particular, that of space dilutions. From systematic studies, we obtain a guiding principle for a choice of dilution types/levels and a number of eigenvectors to reduce noise contaminations to the potential while keeping numerical costs reasonable. We also confirm that we can obtain the scattering phase shifts for the $I=2$ $pipi$ system by the hybrid method within a reasonable numerical cost, which are consistent with the result obtained with the conventional method. The knowledge we obtain in this study will become useful to investigate hadron resonances which require quark annihilation diagrams such as the $rho$ meson by the HAL QCD potential with the hybrid method.

Revised and Improved Value of the QED Tenth-Order Electron Anomalous Magnetic Moment

In order to improve the theoretical prediction of the electron anomalous magnetic moment $a_e$ we have carried out a new numerical evaluation of the 389 integrals of Set V, which represent 6,354 Feynman vertex diagrams without lepton loops. During this work, we found that one of the integrals, called $X024$, was given a wrong value in the previous calculation due to an incorrect assignment of integration variables. The correction of this error causes a shift of $-1.25$ to the Set~V contribution, and hence to the tenth-order universal (i.e., mass-independent) term $ A_1^{(10)}$. The previous evaluation of all other 388 integrals is free from errors and consistent with the new evaluation. Combining the new and the old (excluding $X024$) calculations statistically, we obtain $7.606~(192) (alpha/pi)^5$ as the best estimate of the Set V contribution. Including the contribution of the diagrams with fermion loops, the improved tenth-order universal term becomes $A_1^{(10)}=6.678~(192)$. Adding hadronic and electroweak contributions leads to the theoretical prediction $a_e (text{theory}) =1~159~652~182.032~(720)times 10^{-12}$. From this and the best measurement of $a_e$, we obtain the inverse fine-structure constant $alpha^{-1}(a_e) = 137.035~999~1491~(331)$. The theoretical prediction of the muon anomalous magnetic moment is also affected by the update of QED contribution and the new value of $alpha$, but the shift is much smaller than the theoretical uncertainty.

Flavor-singlet spectrum in multi-flavor QCD

Studying SU(3) gauge theories with increasing number of light fermions is relevant both for understanding the strong dynamics of QCD and for constructing strongly interacting extensions of the Standard Model (e.g. UV completions of composite Higgs models). In order to contrast these many-flavors strongly interacting theories with QCD, we study the flavor-singlet spectrum as an interesting probe. In fact, some composite Higgs models require the Higgs boson to be the lightest flavor-singlet scalar in the spectrum of a strongly interacting new sector with a well defined hierarchy with the rest of the states. Moreover, introducing many light flavors at fixed number of colors can influence the dynamics of the lightest flavor-singlet pseudoscalar. We present the on-going study of these flavor-singlet channels using multiple interpolating operators on high-statistics ensembles generated by the LatKMI collaboration and we compare results with available data obtained by the Lattice Strong Dynamics collaboration. For the theory with 8 flavors, the two collaborations have generated configurations that complement each others with the aim to tackle the massless limit using the largest possible volumes.

Light flavor-singlet scalars and walking signals in $N_f=8$ QCD on the lattice

Based on the highly improved staggered quark action, we perform lattice simulations of $N_f=8$ QCD and confirm our previous observation of a flavor-singlet scalar meson (denoted as $sigma$) as light as the pion and various walking signals through low-lying spectra, with higher statistics, smaller fermion masses $m_f$, and larger volumes. We measure $M_pi$, $F_pi$, $M_rho$, $M_{a_0}$, $M_{a_1}$, $M_{b_1}$, $M_N$, $M_sigma$, $F_sigma$, $langle bar{psi} psirangle$ (both directly and through the GMOR relation), and the string tension. The data are consistent with the spontaneously broken phase of the chiral symmetry, in agreement with the previous results: ratios of the quantities to $M_pi$ monotonically increase in the smaller $m_f$ region towards the chiral limit similarly to $N_f=4$ QCD, in sharp contrast to $N_f=12$ QCD where the ratios become flattened. The hyperscaling relation holds with roughly a universal value of the anomalous dimension, $gamma_m simeq 1$, with a notable exception of $M_pi$ with $gamma_m simeq 0.6$ as in the previous results. This is a salient feature (walking signal) of $N_f=8$, unlike either $N_f=4$ which has no hyperscaling relation at all, or $N_f=12$ QCD which exhibits universal hyperscaling. We further confirm the previous observation of the light $sigma$ with mass comparable to the pion in the studied $m_f$ region. In a chiral limit extrapolation of the $sigma$ mass using the dilaton chiral perturbation theory and also using the simple linear fit, we find the value consistent with the 125 GeV Higgs boson within errors. Our results suggest that the theory could be a good candidate for walking technicolor model, having anomalous dimension $gamma_m simeq 1$ and a light flavor-singlet scalar meson as a technidilaton, which can be identified with the 125 GeV composite Higgs in $N_f=8$ one-family model.

S-parameter and vector decay constant in QCD with eight fundamental fermions

SU(3) gauge theory with eight massless fundamental fermions seems to be near the conformal boundary, and is a candidate theory of walking technicolor. Along the series of study by LatKMI collaboration using HISQ fermions, S-parameter and vector decay constant, which provide important constraints in the model of electroweak symmetry breaking, are calculated for this theory. Use of various volumes allows a systematic investigation of finite volume effects. A strong sensitivity of the S-parameter to the volume is found.

Topological observables in many-flavour QCD

SU(3) gauge theory with eight massless flavours is believed to be walking, while the corresponding twelve- and four-flavour appear IR-conformal and confining respectively. Looking at the simulations performed by the LatKMI collaboration of these theories, we use the topological susceptibility as an additional probe of the IR dynamics. By drawing a comparison with SU(3) pure gauge theory, we see a dynamical quenching effect emerge at larger number of flavours, which is suggestive of emerging near-conformal and conformal behaviour.

Walking and conformal dynamics in many-flavor QCD

In the search for a realistic walking technicolor model, QCD with many flavors is an attractive candidate. From the series of studies by the LatKMI collaboration, we present updated results of the scaling properties of various hadron spectra, including the (pseudo)scalar, vector, and baryon channels, for $N_f=8$ QCD analyzed with the HISQ action. By comparing these with $N_f=12$ QCD, which has properties consistent with conformality, possible signals of walking dynamics are discussed. We also present a preliminary result of the flavor-singlet pseudoscalar mass in many-flavor QCD.

SU(3) gauge theory with four degenerate fundamental fermions on the lattice

As a part of the project studying large $N_f$ QCD, the LatKMI Collaboration has been investigating the SU(3) gauge theory with four fundamental fermions (four-flavor QCD). The main purpose of studying four-flavor QCD is to provide a qualitative comparison to $N_f= 8$, $12$, $16$ QCD; however, a quantitative comparison to real-world QCD is also interesting. To make such comparisons more meaningful, it is desirable to use the same kind of lattice action consistently, so that qualitative difference of different theories are less affected by artifacts of lattice discretization. Here, we adopt the highly-improved staggered quark action with the tree-level Symanzik gauge action (HISQ/tree), which is exactly the same as the setup for our simulations for $SU(3)$ gauge theories with $N_f=8$, $12$ and $16$ fundamental fermions~cite{Aoki:2013xza, Aoki:2012eq, Aoki:2014oma}. In the next section, we show the fermion mass dependence of $F_pi$, $langlebar{psi}psirangle$, $M_pi$, $M_rho$, $M_N$ and their chiral extrapolations. In section 3, preliminary results of the measurement of the mass of the flavor-singlet scalar bound state will be reported.