Problems with the Quenched Approximation in the Chiral Limit

In the quenched approximation, loops of the light singlet meson (the $\eta'$) give rise to a type of chiral logarithm absent in full QCD. These logarithms are singular in the chiral limit throwing doubt upon the utility of the quenched approximation. In previous work, I summed a class of diagrams, leading to non-analytic power dependencies such as \cond\propto m_q^{-\delta/(1+\delta)}. I suggested, however, that these peculiar results could be redefined away. Here I give an alternative derivation of the results, based on the renormalization group, and argue that they cannot be redefined away. I discuss the evidence (or lack thereof) for such effects in numerical data.Comment: (talk given at Lattice '92), 4 pages latex, 3 postscript figures, uses espcr2.sty and psfig.tex (all included) UW/PT-92-2

BKB_K Using Staggered Fermions: An Update

Improved results for $B_K$ are discussed. Scaling corrections are argued to be of $O(a^2)$, leading to a reduction in the systematic error. For a kaon composed of degenerate quarks, the quenched result is ${\widehat{B}_K} = 0.825 \pm 0.027 \pm 0.023$.Comment: (poster presented at Lattice '93), 7 pages latex (it's in preprint format!), 1 postscript figure, bundled with uufiles. Uses psfig.tex. UW/PT-93-2

Staggered fermion matrix elements using smeared operators

We investigate the use of two kinds of staggered fermion operators, smeared and unsmeared. The smeared operators extend over a $4^4$ hypercube, and tend to have smaller perturbative corrections than the corresponding unsmeared operators. We use these operators to calculate kaon weak matrix elements on quenched ensembles at $\beta=6.0$, 6.2 and 6.4. Extrapolating to the continuum limit, we find $B_K(NDR, 2 GeV)= 0.62\pm 0.02(stat)\pm 0.02(syst)$. The systematic error is dominated by the uncertainty in the matching between lattice and continuum operators due to the truncation of perturbation theory at one-loop. We do not include any estimate of the errors due to quenching or to the use of degenerate $s$ and $d$ quarks. For the $\Delta I = {3/2}$ electromagnetic penguin operators we find $B_7^{(3/2)} = 0.62\pm 0.03\pm 0.06$ and $B_8^{(3/2)} = 0.77\pm 0.04\pm 0.04$. We also use the ratio of unsmeared to smeared operators to make a partially non-perturbative estimate of the renormalization of the quark mass for staggered fermions. We find that tadpole improved perturbation theory works well if the coupling is chosen to be \alpha_\MSbar(q^*=1/a).Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure, uses eps