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

Using personas to promote inclusive education in an online course

Inclusion and diversity are themes at the forefront of education development and the subject of much institutional level policy. However, there are differences that can be made at the course or even module level by local teams that will both compliment institutional policy and have an immediate impact on students. This paper aims to describe the process taken to embed diversity and inclusion into an online career development short course. We will explain how user experience personas, created in the design phase of the course, developed into an integral part of the course curriculum and how they are used to show diversity to a fully asynchronous online cohort. We discuss how theories of pedagogy and design can be combined to have a positive impact on the sense of belong for all students. Finally, we explore how these theories can be applied to wider practice and offer suggestions for how other courses can use our process to embed elements of diversity into their programmes, and hopefully increase a sense of student belonging

Improvement, dynamical fermions, and heavy quark screening in QCD_3

First results from simulations of improved actions for both gauge fields and staggered fermion fields in three dimensional QCD are presented. This work provides insight into some issues of relevance to lattice theories in four dimensions. In particular, the renormalization of the bare lattice coupling is dramatically reduced when the tree-level $O(a^2)$ improved action is used. Naik improvement of the staggered fermion action produces little reduction in scaling violations of the rho meson mass. String breaking in the heavy quark potential in the unquenched theory is also clearly resolved, using Wilson loops to bound the ground state energy.Comment: LATTICE98(improvement), 3 pages, 3 figures (psfig format

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

Advanced aeronatics design: Project based engineering education at WPI

One element of WPI\u27s project-based curriculum is its interdisciplinary Advanced Aeronautics Design Program. Students participating in the program are involved in the design, construction, and flight testing of non-traditional aircraft such as an ultralight solar-powered vehicle, microwave-powered long endurance aircraft, or a flying oblique wing. The WPI project philosophy and character are described and illustrated using examples from the AAD program

Hadronic Vacuum Polarization Contribution to g-2 from the Lattice

We give a short description of the present situation of lattice QCD simulations. We then focus on the computation of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon using lattice techniques. We demonstrate that by employing improved observables for the muon anomalous magnetic moment, a significant reduction of the lattice error can be obtained. This provides a promising scenario that the accuracy of lattice calculations can match the experimental errors.Comment: Proceedings of the International Workshop on e+e- collisions from Phi to Psi (PHIPSI11), Sep. 19-22, 2011, BINP, Novosibirsk, Russi

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.

Gluon Propagator on Coarse Lattices in Laplacian Gauges

The Laplacian gauge is a nonperturbative gauge fixing that reduces to Landau gauge in the asymptotic limit. Like Landau gauge, it respects Lorentz invariance, but it is free of Gribov copies; the gauge fixing is unambiguous. In this paper we study the infrared behavior of the lattice gluon propagator in Laplacian gauge by using a variety of lattices with spacings from $a = 0.125$ to 0.35 fm, to explore finite volume and discretization effects. Three different implementations of the Laplacian gauge are defined and compared. The Laplacian gauge propagator has already been claimed to be insensitive to finite volume effects and this is tested on lattices with large volumes.Comment: RevTex 4.0, 14 pages, 9 colour figures; Correction to Reference