We determine quark mass dependent order $a$ improvement terms of the form $b_J am$ for non-singlet scalar, pseudoscalar, vector and axialvector currents, using correlators in coordinate space. We use a set of CLS ensembles comprising non-perturbatively improved Wilson Fermions and the tree-level Luescher-Weisz gauge action at $β=3.4,3.46,3.55$ and $β=3.7$, corresponding to lattice spacings $a$ ranging from $0.05$ fm to $0.09$ fm. We report the values of the $b_J$ improvement coefficients which are proportional to non-singlet quark mass combinations and also discuss the possibility of determining the $\bar{b}_J$ coefficients which are proportional to the trace of the quark mass matrix.
The momentum diffusion coefficient of a heavy quark in a hot QCD plasma can be extracted as a transport coefficient related to the correlator of two colour-electric fields dressing a Polyakov loop. We determine the perturbative renormalization factor for a particular lattice discretization of this correlator within Wilson's SU(3) gauge theory, finding a ~12% NLO correction for values of the bare coupling used in the current generation of simulations. The impact of this result on existing lattice determinations is commented upon, and a possibility for non-perturbative renormalization through th…
We extract the charm quark mass and the strong coupling constant from the charmonium current correlators calculated with $n_f = 2 + 1$ Mobius domain wall fermions. We match our lattice calculation for the temporal moments of the correlator with perturbative result known up to four-loop order, and extract the charm quark mass with uncertainty less than 1%. Using the temporal moments, we also confirm the correlators in the vector channel to be consistent with the experimental data for the R-ratio. We used the ensembles generated by the JLQCD collaboration at lattice spacings $a$ = 0.080 fm, 0.05…
This PhD dissertation is devoted to a non-perturbative study of QCD correlators. The main tool that we use is lattice QCD. We concentrated our efforts on the study of the main correlators of the pure Yang - Mills theory in the Landau gauge, namely the ghost and the gluon propagators. We are particularly interested in determining the $\Lqcd$ parameter. It is extracted by means of perturbative predictions available up to NNNLO. The related topic is the influence of non-perturbative effects that show up as appearance of power-corrections to the low-momentum behaviour of the Green functions. A new…
We determine quark mass dependent order $a$ improvement terms of the form $b_Jam$ for non-singlet scalar, pseudoscalar, vector and axialvector currents using correlators in coordinate space on a set of CLS ensembles. These have been generated employing non-perturbatively improved Wilson Fermions and the tree-level Lüscher-Weisz gauge action at $β= 3.4, 3.46, 3.55$ and $3.7$, corresponding to lattice spacings ranging from $a \approx 0.085$ fm down to $0.05$ fm. In the $N_f=2+1$ flavour theory two types of improvement coefficients exist: $b_J$, proportional to non-singlet quark mass combinations…
We calculate charmonium correlators on the lattice with 2+1-flavors of sea quarks and charm valence quark both described by the Möbius domain-wall fermion. Temporal moments of the correlators are calculated and matched to perturbative QCD formulae to extract the charm quark mass $m_c(μ)$ and strong coupling constant $α_s(μ)$. Lattice data at three lattice spacings, 0.044, 0.055, and 0.080~fm, are extrapolated to the continuum limit. The correlators in the vector channel are confirmed to be consistent with the experimental data for $e^+e^-\to c\bar{c}$, while the pseudo-scalar channel is used t…
The QCD-coupling is a necessary input in the computation of many observables, and the parametric error on input parameters can be a dominant source of uncertainty. The coupling can be extracted by comparing high order perturbative computations and lattice evaluated moments of mesonic two-point functions with heavy quarks, which provide a high energy scale for perturbation theory. The truncation of the perturbative series is an important systematic uncertainty. We report on our attempt to study this issue by measuring pseudo-scalar two-point functions in volumes of $L=2\, \text{fm}$ with twiste…
Working in a quenched setup with Wilson twisted mass valence fermions, we explore the possibility to compute non-perturbatively the step scaling function using the coordinate (X-space) renormalization scheme. This scheme has the advantage of being on-shell and gauge invariant. The step scaling method allows us to calculate the running of the renormalization constants of quark bilinear operators. We describe here the details of this calculation. The aim of this exploratory study is to identify the feasibility of the X-space scheme when used in small volume simulations required by the step scali…
We implement a proposal made in [arXiv:1107.4388] to determine the lattice spacing by matching the lattice vector correlator at a reference distance scale with the same correlator obtained by a dispersion relation based on the $R$-ratio determined experimentally. We work with the isovector current, requiring a separation of the isovector hadronic final states on the phenomenological side. We also discuss the finite-size effect on the correlator, which must be controlled in order for the method to be applicable.
We determine the renormalization constants for flavor non-singlet fermion bilinear operators of Möbius domain-wall fermions. The renormalization condition is imposed on the correlation functions in the coordinate space, such that the non-perturbative lattice calculation reproduces the perturbatively calculated counterpart at short distances. The perturbative expansion is precise as the coefficients are available up to $O(α_s^4)$. We employ $2+1$-flavor lattice ensembles at three lattice spacings in the range 0.044--0.080~fm.
A novel method for the precise identification and determination of the energies that contribute in the spectral decomposition of lattice correlators is presented. The method is based on statistical concepts and it relies heavily on simulation techniques. The $η_c$ correlator is analyzed within this method and the results obtained are compared to a previous analysis based on Bayesian statistics. An analysis of the nucleon local two-point correlators leads to the identification of the excited states in the positive and negative channels. A discussion on the Roper is included.
We study field strength correlators in presence of a static quark-antiquark pair by use of lattice methods. The lattice data have been acquired recently in the context of a determination of relativistic corrections to the static interquark potential. We extract independent estimates of the form factors of two point correlation functions and investigate the effect of higher order correlators. Our results confirm the dominance of the two point correlators in the regions of intermediate and large quark separations, and are compatible with correlation length values obtained from different approach…
We propose a new method to renormalize lattice operators. The method is based on the technique to compute the spectral sum appearing in the Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov QCD sum rule from lattice correlators. The application of this technique to the light quark system is useful for operator renormalization as well as for the test of perturbative QCD and OPE. We determine the renormalization constant of the vector current and discuss extensions to other current operators.
I review the determination of the strong coupling constant from moments of quarkonium correlators calculated on the lattice. I discuss different sources of systematic errors in such calculations.
We use lattice sum rules for the static quark potential to determine the beta-function for symmetric and asymmetric lattices non-perturbatively. We also study the colour field distributions in excited gluonic states.
We investigate the correlators of flavor non-singlet bilinear operators calculated on the lattice at short distances. In the continuum theory, non-perturbative effects are encoded in the form of the operator product expansion (OPE). We test the prediction of OPE by comparing lattice results with those in the continuum theory. We also determine the renormalization factors of quark currents.
The extraction of hadron form factors in lattice QCD using the standard two- and three-point correlator functions has its limitations. One of the most commonly studied sources of systematic error is excited state contamination, which occurs when correlators are contaminated with results from higher energy excitations. We apply the variational method to calculate the axial vector current gA and compare the results to the more commonly used summation and two-exponential fit methods. The results demonstrate that the variational approach offers a more efficient and robust method for the determinat…
We summarize recent attempts to extract characteristics of non-perturbative vacuum structure from lattice measurements of the gauge invariant field strength correlator. As an alternative to cooling, we propose to apply the renormalization group (RG) smoothing method in lattice studies. For pure SU(2) gauge theory we present magnetic and electric correlation lengths and condensates related to various correlators over a temperature range of 0.7 T_{dec} < T < 1.9 T_{dec}
We study the vector and axial-vector current correlators in perturbative and non-perturbative regimes of QCD. The correlators in Euclidean coordinate space are calculated on the lattice using the Möbius domain-wall fermion formulation at three lattice spacings covering 0.044--0.080~fm. The dynamical quark effects of $2+1$ light flavors are included. The sum $V+A$ and the difference $V-A$ of the vector ($V$) and axial-vector ($A$) current correlators calculated on the lattice after extrapolating to the physical point agree with those converted from the ALEPH experimental data of hadronic $τ$ de…
We non-perturbatively calculate the renormalization factor of the static axial vector current in O(a) improved quenched lattice QCD. Its scale dependence is mapped out in the Schroedinger functional scheme by means of a recursive finite-size scaling technique, taking the continuum limit in each step. We also obtain Z_A^{stat} for Wilson fermions in order to renormalize existing unimproved data on F_B^{bare} non-perturbatively.
We propose to determine the coefficients in the Fermilab heavy quark action by matching the finite-volume, off-shell, gauge-fixed propagator and vertex functions with those determined in the exact, relativistic theory. The matching relativistic amplitudes may be determined either from short-distance perturbation theory or from finite-volume step-scaling recursion. Tree-level matching and non-perturbative off-shell amplitudes are presented.
We present a fully non-perturbative determination of the $O(a)$ improvement coefficient $c_{\rm SW}$ in three-flavor dynamical QCD for the RG improved as well as the plaquette gauge actions, using the Schrödinger functional scheme. Results are compared with one-loop estimates at weak gauge coupling.
We describe a non-perturbative determination of $c_A$ using correlators containing the axial-vector and pseudoscalar currents at zero and non-zero momentum. We apply the method of Bhattacharya et al to extract $c_A$ from the requirement that the ratio of appropriate correlators for the PCAC relation becomes independent of time in the excited state region. We find that the result depends strongly on the order of the derivatives used in the PCAC relation. We also find that, using the lowest order derivatives, we cannot get a consistent value of $c_A$ between zero and non-zero momentum cases. The…
The Constraint Effective Potential (CEP) allows a determination of the mass and other quantities directly, without relying upon asymptotic correlator decays. We report and discuss the results of some mass calculations in $(λΦ^4)_4$, obtained from CEP and our improved version of CEP (ICEP).
The current correlator method has been shown to be a practical tool to extract the charm quark mass and strong coupling constant from Lattice QCD data as an alternative to the sum rule approach using experimental electron-positron annihilation cross section data. We report on the progress of an investigation of charm current-current correlators in N_f=2 Twisted Mass Lattice QCD. Upon determining the temporal moments of the current correlators we compare to the low-energy expansion of the moments in perturbative QCD and calculate the charm quark mass and strong coupling constant and in case of …
We present preliminary results for a non perturbative determination of the parameters in the action required to restore Lorentz invariance in long distance correlators, using the static interquark potential. Comparison with analytical results is made and further applications are discussed.
In this work, we strive to gain insight into thermal modifications of charmonium and bottomonium bound states as well as the heavy quark diffusion coefficient. The desired information is contained in the spectral function which can not be calculated on the lattice directly. Instead, the correlator given by an integration over the spectral function times an integration kernel is obtained. Extracting the spectral function is an ill-posed inversion problem and various different solutions have been proposed. We focus on a comparison to a spectral function obtained from combining perturbative and p…
By considering the local vector current between nucleon states and imposing charge conservation we determine, for $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions, its renormalisation constant and quark mass improvement coefficient. The computation is performed for both quenched and two flavour unquenched fermions.
We propose a new non-perturbative method to compute derivatives of gauge coupling constants with respect to anisotropic lattice spacings (anisotropy coefficients). Our method is based on a precise measurement of the finite temperature deconfining transition curve in the lattice coupling parameter space extended to anisotropic lattices by applying the spectral density method. We determine the anisotropy coefficients for the cases of SU(2) and SU(3) gauge theories. A longstanding problem, when one uses the perturbative anisotropy coefficients, is a non-vanishing pressure gap at the deconfining t…
We derive the Operator Product Expansion whose vacuum expectation value gives the time-moments of the pseudoscalar heavy-light current-current correlator up to and including terms in $α_s^2$ multiplying $\langle\overlineψψ\rangle/M^3$ and terms in $α_s$ multiplying $\langle α_s G^2 \rangle/M^4$, where $M$ is the heavy-quark mass. Using lattice QCD results for heavy-strange correlators obtained for a variety of heavy quark masses on gluon field configurations including $u$, $d$ and $s$ quarks in the sea at three values of the lattice spacing, we are able to show that the contribution of the str…
We present non-perturbative first-principle results for quark-, gluon- and meson $1$PI correlation functions of two-flavour Landau-gauge QCD in the vacuum. These correlation functions carry the full information about the theory. They are obtained by solving their Functional Renormalisation Group equations in a systematic vertex expansion, aiming at apparent convergence. This work represents a crucial prerequisite for quantitative first-principle studies of the QCD phase diagram and the hadron spectrum within this framework. In particular, we have computed the gluon, ghost, quark and scalar-pse…
We propose a general method for the numerical evaluation of OPE coefficients in three dimensional Conformal Field Theories based on the study of the conformal perturbation of two point functions in the vicinity of the critical point. We test our proposal in the three dimensional Ising Model, looking at the magnetic perturbation of the $<σ(\mathbf {r})σ(0)>$, $<σ(\mathbf {r})ε(0)>$ and $<ε(\mathbf {r})ε(0)>$ correlators from which we extract the values of $C^σ_{σε}=1.07(3)$ and $C^ε_{εε}=1.45(30)$. Our estimate for $C^σ_{σε}$ agrees with those recently obtained using conformal bootstrap methods…
We calculate the charmonium correlators on the lattice with $n_f = 2+ 1$ Moebius domain wall fermion, and extract the charm quark mass and the strong coupling constant. Time moments are defined by current-current correlators, which have been calculated in the continuum theory by perturbation theory. We extract the charm quark mass by matching the lattice results with the corresponding perturbative QCD calculations, using the recently generated ensembles by the JLQCD collaboration at lattice spacings $a = 0.083, 0.055$, and $0.044$ fm.
We perturbatively determine O($a$) boundary improvement coefficients at 1-loop for the Schrödinger Functional coupling with improved gauge actions. These coefficients are required to implement the 1-loop O($a$) improvement in full QCD simulations for the coupling with the improved gauge actions. To this order, lattice artifacts of the step scaling function (SSF) for each improved gauge action are also investigated. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of the 1-loop O($a$) improvement to the SSF in numerical simulations of the pure SU(3) gauge theory.
A combination of lattice and continuum data for the light-quark V-A correlator, supplemented by results from a chiral sum-rule analysis of the flavor-breaking flavor $ud$-$us$ V-A correlator difference, is shown to make possible a high-precision NNLO determination of the renormalized NLO chiral low-energy constant $L_{10}^r$. Key to this determination is the ability to simultaneously fix the two combinations of NNLO low-energy constants also entering the analysis. With current versions of the strange hadronic $τ$ branching fractions required as input to the flavor-breaking V-A sum rule, we fin…
We use lattice QCD simulations, with MILC gluon configurations and HISQ c-quark propagators, to make very precise determinations of moments of charm-quark pseudoscalar, vector and axial-vector correlators. These moments are combined with new four-loop results from continuum perturbation theory to obtain several new determinations of the MSbar mass of the charm quark and of the MSbar coupling. We find m_c(3GeV)=0.986(10)GeV, or, equivalently, m_c(m_c)=1.268(9)GeV, both for n_f=4 flavors; and alpha_msb(3GeV,n_f=4)=0.251(6), or, equivalently, alpha_\msb(M_Z,n_f=5)=0.1174(12). The new mass agrees …
A finite-size technique is employed to compute the normalization constant $Z_A$ of the isovector axial current in lattice QCD. The calculation is carried out in the quenched approximation for values of the bare gauge coupling $g_0$ ranging from 0 to 1. In the lattice action and the lattice expression for the axial current we include the counterterms required for O(a) improvement, with non-perturbatively determined coefficients. With little additional work the normalization constant $Z_V$ of the improved isospin current is also obtained.
Gauge invariant correlators in QCD are studied on the lattice.A Systematic determination of the correlation lengths for gluon field strength correlators and quark correlators is made.The measurement of the gluon and quark condensates is discussed.
The non-perturbative $\csw$ determined by the Schrödinger functional (SF) method with the RG-improved gauge action in dynamical $N_f=3$ QCD shows a finite volume effect when the numerical simulations are carried out at a constant lattice size $L/a$. We remove the unwanted finite volume effect by keeping physical lattice extent $L$ at a constant. The details of the method and the result obtained for non-perturbative $\csw$ with a constant $L$ are reported.
We investigate the 2-point correlation functions of Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge by means of a massive extension of the Faddeev-Popov action. This model is based on some phenomenological arguments and constraints on the ultraviolet behavior of the theory. We show that the running coupling constant remains finite at all energy scales (no Landau pole) for $d>2$ and argue that the relevant parameter of perturbation theory is significantly smaller than 1 at all energies. Perturbative results at low orders are therefore expected to be satisfactory and we indeed find a very good agreement b…
Numerical studies of quantum field theories usually rely upon an accurate determination of stochastically estimated correlation functions in order to extract information about the spectrum of the theory and matrix elements of operators. The reliable determination of such correlators is often hampered by an exponential degradation of signal/noise at late time separations. We demonstrate that it is sometimes possible to achieve significant enhancements of signal/noise by appropriately optimizing correlators with respect to the source and sink interpolating operators, and highlight the large rang…
The determination of alpha_s(M_Z) via perturbative analyses of short-distance-sensitive lattice observables is revisited, incorporating new lattice data and performing a modified version of the original analysis. The analysis employs two high-intrinsic-scale observables, log (W_11) and log(W_12), and one lower-intrinsic-scale observable, log(W_12/u_0^6). We find good consistency among the values extracted using the different observables and a final result, alpha_s(M_Z)=0.1192(11), in excellent agreement with various recent non-lattice determinations, as well as with the results of a similar, b…
We consider the two-point correlators of Yang-Mills theories at finite temperature in the Landau gauge. We employ a model for the corresponding Yang-Mills correlators based on the inclusion of an effective mass term for gluons. The latter is expected to have its origin in the existence of Gribov copies. One-loop calculations at zero temperature have been shown to agree remarkably well with the corresponding lattice data. We extend on this and perform a one-loop calculation of the Matsubara gluon and ghost two-point correlators at finite temperature. We show that, as in the vacuum, an effective…
We supply recently obtained results from lattice EQCD with the correct UV limit to construct the collisional broadening kernel $C(b_\perp)$ in a QCD plasma. We discuss the limiting behavior of $C(b_\perp)$ at small and large impact parameters $b_\perp$, and illustrate how the results can be used to compute medium-induced radiation rates.
Many lattice studies of heavy quark diffusion originate from a colour-electric correlator, obtained as a leading term after an expansion in the inverse of the heavy-quark mass. In view of the fact that the charm quark is not particularly heavy, we consider subleading terms in the expansion. Working out correlators up to $O(1/M^2)$, we argue that the leading corrections are suppressed by $O(T/M)$, and one of them can be extracted from a colour-magnetic correlator. The corresponding transport coefficient is non-perturbative already at leading order in the weak-coupling expansion, and therefore r…
The determination of quark masses from lattice QCD simulations requires a non-perturbative renormalization procedure and subsequent scale evolution to high energies, where a conversion to the commonly used MS-bar scheme can be safely established. We present our results for the non-perturbative running of renormalized quark masses in Nf=3 QCD between the electroweak and a hadronic energy scale, where lattice simulations are at our disposal. Recent theoretical advances in combination with well-established techniques allows to follow the scale evolution to very high statistical accuracy, and full…
Gradient flow has been proposed in the lattice community as a tool to reduce the sensitivity of operator correlation functions to noisy UV fluctuations. We test perturbatively under what conditions doing so may contaminate the results. To do so, we compute gradient-flowed electric field two-point correlators and stress tensor one- and two-point correlators at finite temperature in QCD. Gradient flow has almost no influence on the value of correlators until a (temperature- and separation-dependent) level of flow is reached, after which the correlator is rapidly compromised. We provide a prescri…
We study the spin-spin, spin-energy and energy-energy correlators in the 2d Ising model perturbed by a magnetic field. We compare the results of a set of high precision Montecarlo simulations with the predictions of two different approximations: the Form Factor approach, based on the exact S-matrix description of the model, and a short distance perturbative expansion around the conformal point. Both methods give very good results, the first one performs better for distances larger than the correlation length, while the second one is more precise for distances smaller than the correlation lengt…
In quantum field theories at finite temperature spectral functions describe how particle systems behave in the presence of a thermal medium. Although data from lattice simulations can in principle be used to determine spectral function characteristics, existing methods rely on the extraction of these quantities from temporal correlators, which requires one to circumvent an ill-posed inverse problem. In these proceedings we report on a recent approach that instead utilises the non-perturbative constraints imposed by field locality to extract spectral function information directly from spatial c…
We apply the gradient flow on a color-electric two-point function that encodes the heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient. The simulations are done on fine isotropic lattices in the quenched approximation at $1.5\,T_c$. The continuum extrapolation is performed at fixed flow time followed by a second extrapolation to zero flow time. Perturbative calculations of this correlation function under Wilson flow are used to enhance the extrapolations of the non-perturbative lattice correlator. The final estimate for the continuum correlator at zero flow time largely agrees with one obtained from a …
Motivated by applications in thermal QCD and cosmology, we elaborate on a general method for computing next-to-leading order spectral functions for composite operators at vanishing spatial momentum, accounting for real, virtual as well as thermal corrections. As an example, we compute these functions (together with the corresponding imaginary-time correlators which can be compared with lattice simulations) for scalar and pseudoscalar densities in pure Yang-Mills theory. Our results may turn out to be helpful in non-perturbative estimates of the corresponding transport coefficients, which are t…
We determine the strong coupling $α_s(m_Z)$ from dimensionless ratios of roots of moments of the charm- and bottom-quark vector and charm pseudo-scalar correlators, dubbed $R_q^{X,n}\equiv(M_q^{X,n})^\frac{1}{n}/(M_q^{X,n+1})^\frac{1}{n+1}$, with $X=V,P$, as well as from the $0$-th moment of the charm pseudo-scalar correlator, $M_c^{P,0}$. In the quantities we use, the mass dependence is very weak, entering only logarithmically, starting at $\mathcal{O}(α_s^2)$. We carefully study all sources of uncertainties, paying special attention to truncation errors, and making sure that order-by-order c…
We determine to order alpha^3 the so-called residual mass in the lattice regularisation of the Heavy Quark Effective Theory for Nf=2. Our (gauge-invariant) strategy makes use of Numerical Stochastic Perturbation Theory to compute the static interquark potential where the above mentioned mass term appears as an additive contribution. We discuss how the new coefficient we compute in the expansion of the residual mass can improve the determination of the (MS bar) mass of the b-quark from lattice simulations of the Heavy Quark Effective Theory.
