Renormalization constants of local operators for Wilson type improved fermions

Perturbative and non-perturbative results are presented on the renormalization constants of the quark field and the vector, axial-vector, pseudoscalar, scalar and tensor currents. The perturbative computation, carried out at one-loop level and up to second order in the lattice spacing, is performed for a fermion action, which includes the clover term and the twisted mass parameter yielding results that are applicable for unimproved Wilson fermions, as well as for improved clover and twisted mass fermions. We consider ten variants of the Symanzik improved gauge action corresponding to ten different values of the plaquette coefficients. Non-perturbative results are obtained using the twisted mass Wilson fermion formulation employing two degenerate dynamical quarks and the tree-level Symanzik improved gluon action. The simulations are performed for pion masses in the range of 480 MeV to 260 MeV and at three values of the lattice spacing, a, corresponding to beta=3.9, 4.05, 4.20. For each renormalization factor computed non-perturbatively we subtract its perturbative O(a^2) terms so that we eliminate part of the cut-off artifacts. The renormalization constants are converted to MS-bar at a scale of mu=2 GeV. The perturbative results depend on a large number of parameters and are made easily accessible to the reader by including them in the distribution package of this paper, as a Mathematica input file.Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures and 6 tables. The results are included in electronic form (Mathematica files

On the center-vortex baryonic area law

We correct an unfortunate error in an earlier work of the author, and show that in center-vortex QCD (gauge group SU(3)) the baryonic area law is the so-called $Y$ law, described by a minimal area with three surfaces spanning the three quark world lines and meeting at a central Steiner line joining the two common meeting points of the world lines. (The earlier claim was that this area law was a so-called $\Delta$ law, involving three extremal areas spanning the three pairs of quark world lines.) We give a preliminary discussion of the extension of these results to $SU(N), N>3$. These results are based on the (correct) baryonic Stokes' theorem given in the earlier work claiming a $\Delta$ law. The $Y$-form area law for SU(3) is in agreement with the most recent lattice calculations.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX4, 5 .eps figure

Topological susceptibility from twisted mass fermions using spectral projectors and the gradient flow

We compare lattice QCD determinations of topological susceptibility using a gluonic definition from the gradient flow and a fermionic definition from the spectral projector method. We use ensembles with dynamical light, strange and charm flavors of maximally twisted mass fermions. For both definitions of the susceptibility we employ ensembles at three values of the lattice spacing and several quark masses at each spacing. The data are fitted to chiral perturbation theory predictions with a discretization term to determine the continuum chiral condensate in the massless limit and estimate the overall discretization errors. We find that both approaches lead to compatible results in the continuum limit, but the gluonic ones are much more affected by cut-off effects. This finally yields a much smaller total error in the spectral projector results. We show that there exists, in principle, a value of the spectral cutoff which would completely eliminate discretization effects in the topological susceptibility.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figure

Nucleon form factors and moments of parton distributions in twisted mass lattice QCD

We present results on the electroweak form factors and on the lower moments of parton distributions of the nucleon, within lattice QCD using two dynamical flavors of degenerate twisted mass fermions. Results are obtained on lattices with three different values of the lattice spacings, namely a=0.089 fm, a=0.070 fm and a=0.056 fm, allowing the investigation of cut-off effects. The volume dependence is examined by comparing results on two lattices of spatial length L=2.1 fm and L=2.8 fm. The simulations span pion masses in the range of 260-470 MeV. Our results are renormalized non-perturbatively and the values are given in the MS-scheme at a scale mu=2 GeV.Comment: Talk presented in the XXIst International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics, 21-27 July 2011, Grenoble, Rhones Alpes Franc

Non-Perturbative Mass Renormalization in Quenched QED from the Worldline Variational Approach

Following Feynman's successful treatment of the polaron problem we apply the same variational principle to quenched QED in the worldline formulation. New features arise from the description of fermions by Grassmann trajectories, the supersymmetry between bosonic and fermionic variables and the much more singular structure of a renormalizable gauge theory like QED in 3+1 dimensions. We take as trial action a general retarded quadratic action both for the bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom and derive the variational equations for the corresponding retardation functions. We find a simple analytic, non-perturbative, solution for the anomalous mass dimension gamma_m(alpha) in the MS scheme. For small couplings we compare our result with recent four-loop perturbative calculations while at large couplings we find that gamma_m(alpha) becomes proportional to (alpha)^(1/2). The anomalous mass dimension shows no obvious sign of the chiral symmetry breaking observed in calculations based on the use of Dyson-Schwinger equations, however we find that a perturbative expansion of gamma_m(alpha) diverges for alpha > 0.7934. Finally, we investigate the behaviour of gamma_m(alpha) at large orders in perturbation theory.Comment: 18 pages, 1 Figure, RevTeX; the manuscript has been substantially revised and enlarged in order to make it selfcontained; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Baryon structure from Lattice QCD

We present recent lattice results on the baryon spectrum, nucleon electromagnetic and axial form factors, nucleon to $\Delta$ transition form factors as well as the $\Delta$ electromagnetic form factors. The masses of the low lying baryons and the nucleon form factors are calculated using two degenerate flavors of twisted mass fermions down to pion mass of about 270 MeV. We compare to the results of other collaborations. The nucleon to $\Delta$ transition and $\Delta$ form factors are calculated in a hybrid scheme, which uses staggered sea quarks and domain wall valence quarks. The dominant dipole nucleon to $\Delta$ transition form factor is also evaluated using dynamical domain wall fermions. The transverse density distributions of the $\Delta$ in the infinite momentum frame are extracted using the form factors determined from lattice QCD.Comment: Invited talk at the Workshop on the Physics of excited nucleons NSTAR2009, Beijing, April 19-22, 2009, 9 page

Modified iterative versus Laplacian Landau gauge in compact U(1) theory

Compact U(1) theory in 4 dimensions is used to compare the modified iterative and the Laplacian fixing to lattice Landau gauge in a controlled setting, since in the Coulomb phase the lattice theory must reproduce the perturbative prediction. It turns out that on either side of the phase transition clear differences show up and in the Coulomb phase the ability to remove double Dirac sheets proves vital on a small lattice.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures containing 23 graphs, v2: 2 figures removed, 2 references adde

Dynamical gluon mass generation from <A^2> in linear covariant gauges

We construct the multiplicatively renormalizable effective potential for the mass dimension two local composite operator A^2 in linear covariant gauges. We show that the formation of is energetically favoured and that the gluons acquire a dynamical mass due to this gluon condensate. We also discuss the gauge parameter independence of the resultant vacuum energy.Comment: 21 pages. 14 .eps figures. v2: minor modifications. v3: version accepted for publication in JHE

Nucleon scalar and tensor charges using lattice QCD simulations at the physical value of the pion mass

We present results on the light, strange and charm nucleon scalar and tensor charges from lattice QCD, using simulations with $N_f=2$ flavors of twisted mass Clover-improved fermions with a physical value of the pion mass. Both connected and disconnected contributions are included, enabling us to extract the isoscalar, strange and charm charges for the first time directly at the physical point. Furthermore, the renormalization is computed non-perturbatively for both isovector and isoscalar quantities. We investigate excited state effects by analyzing several sink-source time separations and by employing a set of methods to probe ground state dominance. Our final results for the scalar charges are $g_S^u = 5.20(42)(15)(12)$, $g_S^d = 4.27(26)(15)(12)$, $g_S^s=0.33(7)(1)(4)$, $g_S^c=0.062(13)(3)(5)$ and for the tensor charges $g_T^u = 0.782(16)(2)(13)$, $g_T^d = -0.219(10)(2)(13)$, $g_T^s=-0.00319(69)(2)(22)$, $g_T^c=-0.00263(269)(2)(37)$ in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme at 2~GeV. The first error is statistical, the second is the systematic error due to the renormalization and the third the systematic arising from possible contamination due to the excited states.Comment: 20 pages and 13 figure