Lattice calculations for B and K mixing

The bag parameters and the decay constants of neutral B and K mesons were among the non-perturbative hadronic inputs to the classical CKM Unitarity Triangle Analysis. Thanks to the big amount of experimental information collected in the last few years at the B-factories and by the CDF collaboration, these matrix elements are now among the outputs of the unitarity fits, once the validity of the Standard Model has been postulated. Lattice calculations of the mixing amplitudes are still needed in order to make a test of the theory, provided that their statistical and systematic errors are under control at the level of a few percent. Here we review some of the recent lattice calculations of these quantities

Remarks on the Gauge Dependence of the RI/MOM Renormalization Procedure

The RI/MOM non-perturbative renormalization scheme is studied on the lattice in SU(3) quenched QCD with Wilson fermions. The gauge dependence of some fermion bilinear renormalization constants is discussed by comparing data which have been gauge-fixed in two different realizations of the Landau gauge and in a generic covariant gauge. The very good agreement between the various sets of results and the theory indicates that the numerical uncertainty induced by the lattice gauge-fixing procedure is moderate and below the statistical errors.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

On the extraction of zero momentum form factors on the lattice

We propose a method to expand correlation functions with respect to the spatial components of external momenta. From the coefficients of the expansion it is possible to extract Lorentz-invariant form factors at zero spatial momentum transfer avoiding model dependent extrapolations. These objects can be profitably calculated on the lattice. We have explicitly checked the validity of the proposed procedure by considering two-point correlators with insertions of the axial current, the form factors of the semileptonic decay of pseudoscalar mesons, and the hadronic vacuum polarization tensor entering, for example, the lattice calculation of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, published versio

Quenched lattice calculation of the B --> D l nu decay rate

We calculate, in the continuum limit of quenched lattice QCD, the form factor that enters in the decay rate of the semileptonic decay B --> D l nu. Making use of the step scaling method (SSM), previously introduced to handle two scale problems in lattice QCD, and of flavour twisted boundary conditions we extract G(w) at finite momentum transfer and at the physical values of the heavy quark masses. Our results can be used in order to extract the CKM matrix element Vcb by the experimental decay rate without model dependent extrapolations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication on Phys. Lett. B, corrected one typ

Doubly Charmed Tetraquarks in B_c and Xi_bc Decays

The phenomenology of the so-called X, Y and Z hadronic resonances is hard to reconcile with standard charmonium or bottomonium interpretations. It has been suggested that some of these new hadrons can possibly be described as tightly bound tetraquark states and/or as loosely bound two-meson molecules. In the present paper we focus on the hypothetical existence of flavored, doubly charmed, tetraquarks. Such states might also carry double electric charge, and in this case, if discovered, they could univocally be interpreted in terms of compact tetraquarks. Flavored tetraquarks are also amenable to lattice studies as their interpolating operators do not overlap with ordinary meson ones. We show that doubly charmed tetraquarks could significantly be produced at LHC from B_c or Xi_bc heavy baryons.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Comments and references added. Version to appear in Phys.Rev.

A Tentative Description of Z_c,b States in Terms of Metastable Feshbach Resonances

We attempt a description of the recently discovered Z_{c,b} states in terms of Feshbach resonances arising from the interaction between the `closed' subspace of hadrocharmonium levels and the `open' one of open-charm/beauty thresholds. We show how the neutrality of the X(3872) might be understood in this scheme and provide a preliminary explanation of the pattern of the measured total widths of X,Z_{c,b}.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of The 6th International Workshop on Charm Physics (CHARM 2013

Flavored tetraquark spectroscopy

The recent confirmation of the charged charmonium like resonance Z(4430) by the LHCb experiment strongly suggests the existence of QCD multi quark bound states. Some preliminary results about hypothetical flavored tetraquark mesons are reported. Such states are particularly amenable to Lattice QCD studies as their interpolating operators do not overlap with those of ordinary hidden-charm mesons

Finite-Volume QED Corrections to Decay Amplitudes in Lattice QCD

We demonstrate that the leading and next-to-leading finite-volume effects in the evaluation of leptonic decay widths of pseudoscalar mesons at $O(\alpha)$ are universal, i.e. they are independent of the structure of the meson. This is analogous to a similar result for the spectrum but with some fundamental differences, most notably the presence of infrared divergences in decay amplitudes. The leading non-universal, structure-dependent terms are of $O(1/L^2)$ (compared to the $O(1/L^3)$ leading non-universal corrections in the spectrum). We calculate the universal finite-volume effects, which requires an extension of previously developed techniques to include a dependence on an external three-momentum (in our case, the momentum of the final state lepton). The result can be included in the strategy proposed in Ref.\,\cite{Carrasco:2015xwa} for using lattice simulations to compute the decay widths at $O(\alpha)$, with the remaining finite-volume effects starting at order $O(1/L^2)$. The methods developed in this paper can be generalised to other decay processes, most notably to semileptonic decays, and hence open the possibility of a new era in precision flavour physics

Electromagnetic corrections to leptonic decay rates of charged pseudoscalar mesons: finite-volume effects

In Carrasco et al. we have recently proposed a method to calculate $O(e^2)$ electromagnetic corrections to leptonic decay widths of pseudoscalar mesons. The method is based on the observation that the infrared divergent contributions (that appear at intermediate stages of the calculation and that cancel in physical quantities thanks to the Bloch-Nordsieck mechanism) are universal, i.e. depend on the charge and the mass of the meson but not on its internal structure. In this talk we perform a detailed analysis of the finite-volume effects associated with our method. In particular we show that also the leading $1/L$ finite-volume effects are universal and perform an analytical calculation of the finite-volume leptonic decay rate for a point-like meson