The charm quark's mass in quenched QCD

We present our preliminary result for the charmed quark mass, which follows from taking the D_s and K meson masses from experiment and r0=0.5 fm (or, equivalently F_K=160 MeV) to set the scale. For the renormalization group invariant quark mass we obtain M_c = 1684(64) MeV, which translates to m_c(m_c)= 1314 (40)(20)(7) MeV for the running mass in the MSbar scheme. Renormalization is treated non-perturbatively, and the continuum limit has been taken, so that the only uncontrolled systematic error consists in the use of the quenched approximation.Comment: Lattice2001(spectrum), 3 page

Precision muon lifetime and capture experiments at PSI

The muLan experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute will measure the lifetime of the positive muon with a precision of 1 ppm, giving a value for the Fermi coupling constant G_F at the level of 0.5 ppm. Meanwhile, by measuring the observed lifetime of the negative muon in pure hydrogen, the muCap experiment will determine the rate of muon capture, giving the proton's pseudoscalar coupling g_p to 7%. This coupling can be calculated precisely from heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory and therefore permits a test of QCD's chiral symmetry.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Neutrino Factories and Superbeams (NuFACT04), July 26-August 1, 2004, Osaka, Japan; revised to add one reference (other small edits to conserve length

Pade-Improved Estimate of Perturbative Contributions to Inclusive Semileptonic b→ub\to u Decays

Pade-approximant methods are used to estimate the three-loop perturbative contributions to the inclusive semileptonic $b \to u$ decay rate. These improved estimates of the decay rate reduce the theoretical uncertainty in the extraction of the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ from the measured inclusive semileptonic branching ratio.Comment: 3 pages, latex, write-up of talk presented at DPF 200

The 4-loop quark mass anomalous dimension and the invariant quark mass

We present the analytical calculation of the four-loop quark mass anomalous dimension in Quantum Chromodynamics within the minimal subtraction scheme. On the basis of this result we find that the so-called invariant quark mass is a very good reference mass for the accurate evolution of the running MS-bar quark mass in phenomenological applications. We also obtain for the first time a complete 4-th order perturbative QCD expression for a physical quantity, the total Higgs boson decay rate into hadrons, and analyze the infrared fixed point for this case.Comment: 11 pages, Late

Measurement of the Fermi Constant by FAST

An initial measurement of the lifetime of the positive muon to a precision of 16 parts per million (ppm) has been performed with the FAST detector at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The result is tau_mu = 2.197083 (32) (15) microsec, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The muon lifetime determines the Fermi constant, G_F = 1.166353 (9) x 10^-5 GeV^-2 (8 ppm).Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Three-loop renormalization of the N=1, N=2, N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories

We calculate the renormalization constants of the N=1, N=2, N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in an arbitrary covariant gauge in the dimensional reduction scheme up to three loops. We have found, that the beta-functions for N=1 and N=4 SYM theories are the same from the different triple vertices. This means that the dimensional reduction scheme works correctly in these models up to third order of perturbative theory.Comment: 6 page

Renormalization-Scheme-Independent Perturbation Theory by Resumming Logarithms

Results of perturbation theory in quantum field theory generally depend on the renormalization scheme that is in use. In particular, they depend on the scale. We try to make perturbation theory scheme invariant by re-expanding with respect to a scheme invariant quantity. Furthermore, we investigate whether the potentially large logarithms in such an expansion cause inaccuracy and how this can be improved.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. First replaced version: added one reference. Second replaced version: added two references, mention effective-charge method, added remarks about further research possibilities, changed size of graphs a littl