B -> D* l nu and B -> D l nu form factors in staggered chiral perturbation theory

We calculate the B -> D and B -> D* form factors at zero recoil in Staggered Chiral Perturbation Theory. We consider heavy-light mesons in which only the light (u, d, or s) quark is staggered; current lattice simulations generally use a highly improved action such as the Fermilab or NRQCD action for the heavy (b or c) quark. We work to lowest nontrivial order in the heavy quark expansion and to one-loop in the chiral expansion. We present results for a partially quenched theory with three sea quarks in which there are no mass degeneracies (the "1+1+1" theory) and for a partially quenched theory in which the u and d sea quark masses are equal (the "2+1" theory). We also present results for full (2+1) QCD, along with a numerical estimate of the size of staggered discretization errors. Finally, we calculate the finite volume corrections to the form factors and estimate their numerical size in current lattice simulations.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, references added, expanded discussion in Section I

Topological fermion condensates from anomalies

We show that a class of fermion theory formulated on a compact, curved manifold will generate a condensate whose magnitude is determined only by the volume and Euler characteristic of the space. The construction requires that the fermions be treated as K\"{a}hler-Dirac fields and the condensate arises from an anomaly associated with a $U(1)$ global symmetry which is subsequently broken to a discrete subgroup. Remarkably the anomaly survives under discretization of the space which allows us to compute the condensate on an arbitrary triangulation. The results, being topological in character, should hold in a wide range of gravitationally coupled fermion theories both classical and quantumComment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. minor corrections. Version published in JHE

Lattice quantum gravity with scalar fields

We consider the four-dimensional Euclidean dynamical triangulations lattice model of quantum gravity based on triangulations of $S^{4}$. We couple it minimally to a scalar field in the quenched approximation. Our results suggest a multiplicative renormalization for the mass of the scalar field which is consistent with the shift symmetry of the discretized lattice action. We discuss the possibility of measuring the mass anomalous dimension and the gravitational binding energy between two scalar test particles, where a negative bound state energy would imply that this model has an attractive gravitational force.Comment: 1+6 pages, proceedings for the 36th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (22-28 July 2018). v2 -- Added one reference and fixed a typo. Comments welcome

Quenching effects in strong penguin contributions to ϵ′/ϵ\epsilon'/\epsilon

Quenching effects in strong penguin matrix elements are investigated. A lattice determination of $\alpha_q^{NS}$, the constant that appears in the quenched ChPT relevant for the lattice analysis of $K\to\pi\pi$ matrix elements, shows that this constant is large. The original RBC analysis of $Q_6$ matrix elements is revisited in light of this result. Also, the numerical effects of choosing the singlet Golterman-Pallante method of quenching $Q_6$ is investigated.Comment: 3 pages, talk presented at Lattice2004(weak), Fermilab, June 21-26, 200