Chiral symmetry and spectrum of Euclidean Dirac operator

After recalling some connections between the Spontaneous Breakdown of Chiral Symmetry (SBChS) and the spectrum of the Dirac operator for Euclidean QCD on a torus, we use this tool to reconsider two related issues : the Zweig rule violation in the scalar channel and the dependence of SBChS order parameters on the number N_f of massless flavours. The latter would result into a great variety of SBChS patterns in the (N_f,N_c) plane, which could be studied through so-called Leutwyler-Smilga sum rules in association with lattice computations of the Dirac spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, no figure, class file included. Talk given at the XVII International School of Physics "QCD: Perturbative or Nonperturbative", Lisbon, Portugal, 29 September - 4 October 1999, to appear in the Proceeding

QCD factorisation and flavour symmetries illustrated in B_d,s -> KK decays

We present a new analysis of B_d,s -> KK modes within the SM, relating them in a controlled way through SU(3)-flavour symmetry and QCD-improved factorisation. We propose a set of sum rules for B_d,s -> K^0 \bar K^0 observables. We determine B_s -> KK branching ratios and CP-asymmetries as functions of A_dir(B_d -> K^0 \bar K^0), with a good agreement with current experimental measurements of CDF. Finally, we predict the amount of U-spin breaking between B_d -> pi+ pi- and B_s -> K+K-.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Talk given at the 4th International Workshop on the CKM Unitarity Triangle (CKM2006), 12-16 December 2006, Nagoya, Japan, to appear in the proceedings (KEK Report

pi-pi and pi-K scatterings in three-flavour resummed chiral perturbation theory

The (light but not-so-light) strange quark may play a special role in the low-energy dynamics of QCD. The presence of strange quark pairs in the sea may have a significant impact of the pattern of chiral symmetry breaking : in particular large differences can occur between the chiral limits of two and three massless flavours (i.e., whether m_s is kept at its physical value or sent to zero). This may induce problems of convergence in three-flavour chiral expansions. To cope with such difficulties, we introduce a new framework, called Resummed Chiral Perturbation Theory. We exploit it to analyse pi-pi and pi-K scatterings and match them with dispersive results in a frequentist framework. Constraints on three-flavour chiral order parameters are derived.Comment: Proceedings of the EPS-HEP 2007 Conference, Manchester (UK). 3 pages, 1 figur

The CKM Parameters

The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix is a key element to describe flavour dynamics in the Standard Model. With only four parameters, this matrix is able to describe a large range of phenomena in the quark sector, such as CP violation and rare decays. It can thus be constrained by many different processes, which have to be measured experimentally with a high accuracy and computed with a good theoretical control. With the advent of the B factories and the LHCb experiment taking data, the precision has significantly improved recently. The most relevant experimental constraints and theoretical inputs are reviewed and fits to the CKM matrix are presented for the Standard Model and for some topical model-independent studies of New Physics.Comment: Invited contribution to Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science, Volume 6

The role of strange sea quarks in chiral extrapolations on the lattice

Since the strange quark has a light mass of order Lambda_QCD, fluctuations of sea s-s bar pairs may play a special role in the low-energy dynamics of QCD by inducing significantly different patterns of chiral symmetry breaking in the chiral limits N_f=2 (m_u=m_d=0, m_s physical) and N_f=3 (m_u=m_d=m_s=0). This effect of vacuum fluctuations of s-s bar pairs is related to the violation of the Zweig rule in the scalar sector, described through the two O(p^4) low-energy constants L_4 and L_6 of the three-flavour strong chiral lagrangian. In the case of significant vacuum fluctuations, three-flavour chiral expansions might exhibit a numerical competition between leading- and next-to-leading-order terms according to the chiral counting, and chiral extrapolations should be handled with a special care. We investigate the impact of the fluctuations of s-s bar pairs on chiral extrapolations in the case of lattice simulations with three dynamical flavours in the isospin limit. Information on the size of the vacuum fluctuations can be obtained from the dependence of the masses and decay constants of pions and kaons on the light quark masses. Even in the case of large fluctuations, corrections due to the finite size of spatial dimensions can be kept under control for large enough boxes (L around 2.5 fm).Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures. A few comments added and typos correcte

pi K scattering inputs to ChPT

Experimental information on low energy $\pi K$ scattering would shed light on the poorly known OZI suppressed sector of ChPT. I describe recent work aimed at generating such information based on available experimental data by setting up and then solving with appropriate boundary conditions a non linear system of equations of the Roy and Steiner type. First results of this analysis are presented.Comment: Talk given at QCD'03 conference, 2-9 July 2003, Montpellie

Determining the chiral condensate from the distribution of the winding number beyond topological susceptibility

The first two non-trivial moments of the distribution of the topological charge (or gluonic winding number), i.e., the topological susceptibility and the fourth cumulant, can be computed in lattice QCD simulations and exploited to constrain the pattern of chiral symmetry breaking. We compute these two topological observables at next-to-leading order in three-flavour Chiral Perturbation Theory, and we discuss the role played by the eta propagation in these expressions. For hierarchies of light-quark masses close to the physical situation, we show that the fourth cumulant has a much better sensitivity than the topological susceptibility to the three-flavour quark condensate, and thus constitutes a relevant tool to determine the pattern of chiral symmetry breaking in the limit of three massless flavours. We provide the complete formulae for the two topological observables in the isospin limit, and predict their values in the particular setting of the recent analysis of the RBC/UKQCD collaboration. We show that a combination of the topological susceptibility and the fourth cumulant is able to pin down the three-flavour condensate in a particularly clean way in the case of three degenerate quarks.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in EPJ

Chiral dynamics with strange quarks in the light of recent lattice simulations

Several lattice collaborations performing simulations with 2+1 light dynamical quarks have experienced difficulties in fitting their data with standard Nf=3 chiral expansions at next-to-leading order, yielding low values of the quark condensate and/or the decay constant in the Nf=3 chiral limit. A reordering of these expansions seems required to analyse these data in a consistent way. We discuss such a reordering, known as Resummed Chiral Perturbation Theory, in the case of pseudoscalar masses and decay constants, pion and kaon electromagnetic form factors and Kl3} form factors. We show that it provides a good fit of the recent results of two lattice collaborations (PACS-CS and RBC/UKQCD). We describe the emerging picture for the pattern of chiral symmetry breaking, marked by a strong dependence of the observables on the strange quark mass and thus a significant difference between chiral symmetry breaking in the Nf=2 and Nf=3 chiral limits. We discuss the consequences for the ratio of decay constants F_K/F_pi and the Kl3 form factor at vanishing momentum transfer.Comment: 31 pages. Published versio