On cutoff effects in lattice QCD from short to long distances

We discuss kinematical enhancements of cutoff effects at short and intermediate distances. Starting from a pedagogical example with periodic boundary conditions, we switch to the case of the Schroedinger Functional, where the theoretical analysis is checked by precise numerical data with Nf=2 dynamical O(a)-improved Wilson quarks. Finally we present an improved determination of the renormalization of the axial current in that theory.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures and 2 tables. References modifie

Cutoff-effects in the spectrum of dynamical Wilson fermions

We investigate the low-lying eigenvalues of the improved Wilson-Dirac operator in the Schroedinger functional with two dynamical quark flavors. At a lattice spacing of approximately 0.1 fm we find more very small eigenvalues than in the quenched case. These cause problems with HMC-type algorithms and in the evaluation of fermionic correlation functions. Through a simulation at a finer lattice spacing we are able to establish their nature as cutoff-effectsComment: Lattice2004(machines), 3 pages, 3 figures, talk by R.

Towards precision heavy flavour physics from lattice QCD

I convey an idea of the significant recent progress, which opens up good perspectives for high-precision ab-initio computations in heavy flavour physics based on lattice QCD. This report focuses on the strategy and the challenges of fully non-perturbative investigations in the B-meson sector, where the b-quark is treated within an effective theory, as followed by the ALPHA Collaboration. As an application, I outline its use to determine the b-quark mass and summarize the status of our ongoing project in the two dynamical flavour theory.Comment: Invited talk at the Third Workshop on Theory, Phenomenology and Experiments in Heavy Flavour Physics, 5-7 July 2010, Capri, Italy; 8 pages including figures, latex2e, uses espcrc2.st

Quark disconnected diagrams in chiral perturbation theory

We show how quark-disconnected and quark-connected contributions to hadronic n-point functions can be written as independent correlators for which one can derive expressions in partially quenched chiral effective theory. As an example we apply the idea to the case of the hadronic vacuum polarisation. In particular, we consider the cases of the Nf = 2 theory without and with a partially quenched strange quark and also the Nf = 2 + 1 theory. In the latter two cases a parameter-free prediction for the disconnected contribution at NLO in the effective theory is given. Finally we show how twisted boundary conditions can then be used in lattice QCD to improve the q^2 resolution in the connected contributions even when flavour singlet operators are considered.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures; results unchanged; typos corrected, references added and discussion extended; accepted for publication in JHE

Glueball masses from ratios of path integrals

By generalizing our previous work on the parity symmetry, the partition function of a Yang-Mills theory is decomposed into a sum of path integrals each giving the contribution from multiplets of states with fixed quantum numbers associated to parity, charge conjugation, translations, rotations and central conjugations. Ratios of path integrals and correlation functions can then be computed with a multi-level Monte Carlo integration scheme whose numerical cost, at a fixed statistical precision and at asymptotically large times, increases power-like with the time extent of the lattice. The strategy is implemented for the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, and a full-fledged computation of the mass and multiplicity of the lightest glueball with vacuum quantum numbers is carried out at two values of the lattice spacing (0.17 and 0.12 fm).Comment: Poster contribution to Lattice 2011. 7 pages, 2 tables, 2 figure