Hadronic matrix elements of proton decay on the lattice

We report on our on-going project to calculate proton decay matrix elements using domain-wall fermions on the lattice. By summarizing the history of the proton decay calculation on the lattice, we reveal the systematic errors of those calculations. Then we discuss our approach to tackle those uncertainties and show our preliminary results on the matrix elements.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, talk presented at CIPANP2003: Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics, New York City, May 19-24, 200

Transition temperature in QCD with physical light and strange quark masses

We present results from a calculation of the transition temperature in QCD with two light and one heavier (strange) quark mass on lattices with temporal extent N_t =4 and 6. Calculations with improved staggered fermions have been performed with a strange quark mass fixed close to its physical value and for various light to strange quark mass ratios that correspond to light pseudo-scalar masses in the range (150-500) MeV. From a combined extrapolation to the chiral (m_l -> 0) and continuum (aT -> 0) limits we obtain for the transition temperature at the physical point T_c = 192(7)(4) MeV. We also present first results from an ongoing calculation of the QCD equation of state with almost realistic light and strange quark masses.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, Shanghai, Nov. 200

Heavy quark thermodynamics in full QCD

We analyze the large-distance behaviour of static quark-anti-quark pair correlations in QCD. The singlet free energy is calculated and the entropy contribution to it is identified allowing us to calculate the excess internal energy. The free energy has a sharp drop in the critical region, leading to sharp peaks in both excess entropy and internal energy.Comment: talk given at Quark Matter 200

Chirally improving Wilson fermions - I. O(a) improvement

We show that it is possible to improve the chiral behaviour and the approach to the continuum limit of correlation functions in lattice QCD with Wilson fermions by taking arithmetic averages of correlators computed in theories regularized with Wilson terms of opposite sign. Improved hadronic masses and matrix elements can be obtained by similarly averaging the corresponding physical quantities separately computed within the two regularizations. To deal with the problems related to the spectrum of the Wilson--Dirac operator, which are particularly worrisome when Wilson and mass terms are such as to give contributions of opposite sign to the real part of the eigenvalues, we propose to use twisted-mass lattice QCD for the actual computation of the quantities taking part to the averages. The choice $\pm \pi/2$ for the twisting angle is particularly interesting, as O($a$) improved estimates of physical quantities can be obtained even without averaging data from lattice formulations with opposite Wilson terms. In all cases little or no extra computing power is necessary, compared to simulations with standard Wilson fermions or twisted-mass lattice QCD.Comment: 71 pages, Latex, Keywords: Lattice, Improvement, Chirality. Version v2: mistake corrected in transformation properties under \omega -> -\omega, sect. 5.3.1 (see also sect. 6.1). Minor corrections in App. D and argument clarified in App. F. Version v3: minor modifications in sect. 2 (pag. 8-10: on the odd r-parity of M_crit(r)), in sect. 3.1.3 and 5.4.1 (few sentences about cutoff effects at small quark mass) and in sect. 3.2 (details of discussion below eq. 3.17); updated/added some reference

Reducing Residual-Mass Effects for Domain-Wall Fermions

It has been suggested to project out a number of low-lying eigenvalues of the four-dimensional Wilson--Dirac operator that generates the transfer matrix of domain-wall fermions in order to improve simulations with domain-wall fermions. We investigate how this projection method reduces the residual chiral symmetry-breaking effects for a finite extent of the extra dimension. We use the standard Wilson as well as the renormalization--group--improved gauge action. In both cases we find a substantially reduced residual mass when the projection method is employed. In addition, the large fluctuations in this quantity disappear.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, references updated, comments adde

On Unification and Nucleon Decay in Supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories Based on SU(5)

We investigate the unification constraints in the minimal sypersymmetric grand unified theories based on SU(5) gauge symmetry. The most general constraints on the spectrum of minimal supersymmetric SU(5) and flipped SU(5) are shown. The upper bound on the mass of the colored Higgs mediating proton decay is discussed in detail in the context of the minimal supersymmetric SU(5). In the case of the minimal SUSY SU(5) we show that if we stick to the strongest bound on the colored triplet mass coming from dimension five proton decay contributions there is no hope to test this model at future nucleon decay experiments through the dimension six operators. We find a lower bound on the partial proton decay lifetime for all relevant channels in the context of flipped SUSY SU(5). We conclude that flipped SUSY SU(5) might be in trouble if proton decay is found at the next generation of experiments with a lifetime below 10^{37} years.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, some corrections and references adde

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

Progress in finite temperature lattice QCD

I review recent progress in finite temperature lattice calculations, including the determination of the transition temperature, equation of state, screening of static quarks and meson spectral functions.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, uses iopart.cls, invited talk presented at Strangeness in Quark Matter 2007 (SQM 2007), Levoca, Slovakia, June 24-29, 200

Quarkonium in Hot Medium

I review recent progress in studying quarkonium properties in hot medium as well as possible consequences for quarkonium production in heavy ion collisions.Comment: Invited talk at SQM 2009, Buzios, Brazil, Sep. 27 -Oct. 2 2009, LaTeX, 8 pages,3 figures; typos corrected, references adde