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The partition function of a quantum field theory with an exact symmetry can be decomposed into a sum of functional integrals each giving the contribution from states with definite symmetry properties. The composition rules of the corresponding transfer matrix elements can be exploited to devise a multi-level Monte Carlo integration scheme for computing correlation functions whose numerical cost, at a fixed precision and at asymptotically large times, increases power-like with the time extent of the lattice. As a result the numerical effort is exponentially reduced with respect to the standard Monte Carlo procedure. We test this strategy in the SU(3) Yang--Mills theory by evaluating the relative contribution to the partition function of the parity odd states., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. Few typos corrected, data sets added, Appendix A added. To appear on Comput. Phys. Commun

We present preliminary results of the non-perturbative heavy quark mass dependence of heavy-light meson observables in the continuum limit of finite-volume two-flavour lattice QCD. These observables, which are derived from heavy-light Schroedinger functional correlation functions and computed over a range of renormalization group invariant heavy quark masses from the charm to beyond the bottom region, allow for a quantitative comparison with the predictions of HQET and are of practical relevance for solving renormalization problems in HQET non-perturbatively by a matching to QCD in finite volume., Comment: 7 pages, pdflatex; talk presented at Lattice 2008, XXVI International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 14-19, 2008, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

We discuss kinematical enhancements of cutoff effects at short and intermediate distances. Starting from a pedagogical example with periodic boundary conditions, we switch to the case of the Schroedinger Functional, where the theoretical analysis is checked by precise numerical data with Nf=2 dynamical O(a)-improved Wilson quarks. Finally we present an improved determination of the renormalization of the axial current in that theory., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures and 2 tables. References modified

We report on a scaling test of several mesonic observables in the non-perturbatively O(a) improved Wilson theory with two flavors of dynamical quarks. The observables are constructed in a fixed volume of 2.4fm x (1.8fm)^3 with Schroedinger functional boundary conditions. No significant scaling violations are found. Using the kaon mass determined in \cite{cernI}, we update our estimate of the Lambda parameter to Lambda^(2)_{msbar}/m_K = 0.52(6)., Comment: 12 pages, 5 tables, 3 figures; one equation corrected; last line and caption of table 4 revised

I review recent progresses in heavy quarks physics on the lattice. I focus on decay constants and form factors relevant for the extraction of CKM matrix elements from experimental data. B-\bar{B} mixing is also discussed. In the last part of the paper I describe phenomenological applications of Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) on the lattice, presenting in some detail the recent non-perturbative determination of the b-quark mass including O(1/m_b) corrections., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. Proceeding of the plenary talk at The XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 30-4 August 2007, Regensburg, Germany. Discussion at the end of section 3 slightly changed due to the revision of ref 50

We improve a previous quenched result for heavy-light pseudoscalar meson decay constants with the light quark taken to be the strange quark. A finer lattice resolution (a ~ 0.05 fm) in the continuum limit extrapolation of the data computed in the static approximation is included. We also give further details concerning the techniques used in order to keep the statistical and systematic errors at large lattice sizes L/a under control. Our final result, obtained by combining these data with determinations of the decay constant for pseudoscalar mesons around the D_s, follows nicely the qualitative expectation of the 1/m-expansion with a (relative) 1/m-term of about -0.5 GeV/m_PS. At the physical b-quark mass we obtain F_{B_s} = 193(7) MeV, where all errors apart from the quenched approximation are included., Comment: 20 pages including figures and tables, latex2e, uses JHEP3.cls; version published in JHEP, discussion of the continuum limit extended and references added, final results only minimally affected

We explain how the strategy of solving renormalization problems in HQET non-perturbatively by a matching to QCD in finite volume can be implemented to include dynamical fermions. As a primary application, some elements of an HQET computation of the mass of the b-quark beyond the leading order with N_f=2 are outlined. In particular, the matching of HQET and QCD requires relativistic QCD simulations in a volume with L ~ 0.5 fm, which will serve to quantitatively determine the heavy quark mass dependence of heavy-light meson observables in the continuum limit of finite-volume two-flavour lattice QCD. As a preparation for the latter, we report on our determination of the renormalization constants and improvement coefficients relating the renormalized current and subtracted bare quark mass in the relevant weak coupling region. The calculation of these coefficients employs a constant physics condition in the Schroedinger functional scheme, where the box size L is fixed by working at a prescribed value of the renormalized coupling., Comment: 14 pages including figures and tables, latex2e, uses PoS.cls; presented at the XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 30 - August 4 2007, Regensburg, Germany; typo corrected, results unchanged

Following the strategy developed by the ALPHA collaboration, we present a method to compute non-perturbatively the decay constant of a heavy-light meson in HQET including the 1/m corrections. We start by a matching between HQET and QCD in a small volume to determine the parameters of the effective theory non-perturbatively. Observables in the effective theory are then evolved to larger volumes. In two steps a large enough volume is reached to determine the physical decay constant. Some preliminary results in the quenched approximation are shown., Comment: 7 pages, contribution to the XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, parallel session "Standard model parameters and renormalization"

We present a fully non-perturbative computation of the mass of the b-quark in the quenched approximation. Our strategy starts from the matching of HQET to QCD in a finite volume and finally relates the quark mass to the spin averaged mass of the Bs meson in HQET. All steps include the terms of order Lambda^2/Mb. Expanding on [1], we discuss the computation and renormalization of correlation functions at order 1/Mb. With the strange quark mass fixed from the Kaon mass and the QCD scale set through r0=0.5 fm, we obtain a renormalization group invariant mass Mb = 6.758(86) GeV or mb(mb)= 4.347(48) GeV in the MS-bar scheme. The uncertainty in the computed Lambda^2/Mb terms contributes little to the total error and Lambda^3/Mb^2 terms are negligible. The strategy is promising for full QCD as well as for other B-physics observables., Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures, 12 tables references added and minor corrections

We study autocorrelation times of physical observables in lattice QCD as a function of the molecular dynamics trajectory length in the hybrid Monte-Carlo algorithm. In an interval of trajectory lengths where energy and reversibility violations can be kept under control, we find a variation of the integrated autocorrelation times by a factor of about two in the quantities of interest. Trajectories longer than conventionally used are found to be superior both in the Nf=0 and Nf=2 examples considered here. We also provide evidence that they lead to faster thermalization of systems with light quarks., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

We perform the non-perturbative renormalization of matrix elements of the static-light axial current by a computation of its scale dependence in lattice QCD with two flavours of massless O(a) improved Wilson quarks. The regularization independent factor that relates any running renormalized matrix element of the axial current in the static effective theory to the renormalization group invariant one is evaluated in the Schroedinger functional scheme, where in this case we find a significant deviation of the non-perturbative running from the perturbative prediction. An important technical ingredient to improve the precision of the results consists in the use of modified discretizations of the static quark action introduced earlier by our collaboration. As an illustration how to apply the renormalization of the static axial current presented here, we connect the bare matrix element of the current to the B_s-meson decay constant in the static approximation for one value of the lattice spacing, a ~ 0.08 fm, employing large-volume N_f=2 data at beta=5.3., Comment: 33 pages including figures and tables, latex2e, uses JHEP3.cls; version published in JHEP, small additions, results unchanged

The running of renormalized quark masses is computed in lattice QCD with two flavors of massless O(a) improved Wilson quarks. The regularization and flavor independent factor that relates running quark masses to the renormalization group invariant ones is evaluated in the Schroedinger Functional scheme. Using existing data for the scale r_0 and the pseudoscalar meson masses, we define a reference quark mass in QCD with two degenerate quark flavors. We then compute the renormalization group invariant reference quark mass at three different lattice spacings. Our estimate for the continuum value is converted to the strange quark mass with the help of chiral perturbation theory., Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures; sections 1 and 4 rearranged, minor change to the summary plot

We simulate two dimensional QED with two degenerate Wilson fermions and plaquette gauge action. As a consequence of the Mermin-Wagner theorem, in the continuum limit chiral symmetry is realized a la Wigner. This property affects also the size of the cutoff effects. That can be understood in view of the fact that the leading lattice artifacts are described, in the continuum Symanzik effective theory, by chirality breaking terms. In particular, vacuum expectation values of non-chirality-breaking operators are expected to be O(a) improved in the chiral limit. We provide a numerical confirmation of this expectation by performing a scaling test., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Eq. 9 corrected, accepted for publication in Physics Letters B

We present results for the non-perturbative determination of the improvement and renormalization factors of the isovector axial current for lattice QCD with two flavors of dynamical Wilson quarks. The improvement and normalization conditions are formulated in terms of matrix elements of the PCAC relation in the Schroedinger functional setup and results are given in the form of interpolating formulae for bare gauge couplings beta=6/g_0^2>5.2., Comment: Talk presented at Lattice 2005 (Improvement and renomalisation), 6 pages, 4 figures

The non-perturbative running of the quark mass in the Schroedinger functional scheme is computed over a large energy range (covering scales differing by two orders of magnitude). This allows to relate lattice estimates of the running quark mass to the renormalization group invariant mass. The result is used in a preliminary computation of the strange quark mass in the theory with two flavors of non-perturbatively improved Wilson quarks. A more detailed discussion of the calculation can be found in [1]., Comment: Talk presented at Lattice 2005 (Improvement and renomalisation), 6 pages, 2 figures

A non perturbative method to compute the mass of the b quark including the 1/m term in HQET has been presented in a companion talk. Following this strategy, we find in the MS bar scheme m_b^{stat}(m_b) = 4.350(64) GeV for the leading term, and m_b^{(1)}(m_b) = -0.049(29) GeV for the next to leading order correction. This method involves several steps, including the simulation of the relativistic theory in a small volume, and of the effective theory in a big volume. Here we present some numerical details of our calculations., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, talk presented at Lattice 2005 (Heavy quark physics), PoS style. Add reference to hep-lat/0510048

We consider HQET including the first order correction in 1/m. A strategy for the computation of the b-quark mass is discussed. Only two quantities Phi_1/2 have to be considered in order to match QCD and HQET, since the spin-dependent interaction is easily eliminated due to the spin symmetry of the static theory. Quite simple formulae relate the renormalization group invariant b-quark mass (M_b) to the B-meson mass. All entries in these formulae are non-perturbatively defined and can be computed in the continuum limit of the lattice regularized theory. For the numerically most critical part, we illustrate the cancellation of power divergences by a numerical example. Numerical results for the 1/m correction to M_b, are presented in a companion talk., Comment: Talk presented at Lattice 2005 (Heavy quark physics), 5 pages

We present a new normalization condition for the axial current, derived from the PCAC relation with non-vanishing quark mass. This condition is expected to reduce mass effects in the chiral extrapolation of the results for the normalization factor Z_A. The application to the two-flavor theory with improved Wilson fermions shows that this expectation is indeed fulfilled. Using the Schroedinger functional setup we calculate Z_A(g_0^2) as well as the vector current normalization factor Z_V(g_0^2) for beta = 6/g_0^2 >= 5.2., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, JHEP style

A non-perturbative determination of the axial current improvement coefficient cA is performed with two flavors of dynamical improved Wilson fermions and plaquette gauge action. The improvement condition is formulated with Schroedinger functional boundary conditions and enforced at constant physical volume. Large sensitivity is obtained by using two different pseudo-scalar states in the PCAC relation. We estimate the resulting correction to F_PS at beta=5.2 to be around 10%., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, JHEP style

We introduce new discretizations of the action for static quarks. They achieve an exponential improvement (compared to the Eichten-Hill regularization) on the signal to noise ratio in static-light correlation functions. This is explicitly checked in a quenched simulation and it is understood quantitatively in terms of the self energy of a static quark and the lattice heavy quark potential at zero distance. We perform a set of scaling tests in the Schroedinger functional and find scaling violations in the O(a) improved theory to be rather small -- for one observable significantly smaller than with the Eichten-Hill regularization. In addition we compute the improvement coefficients of the static light axial current up to O(g_0^4) corrections and the corresponding renormalization constants non-perturbatively. The regularization dependent part of the renormalization of the b-quark mass in static approximation is also determined., Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures

We present a non-perturbative computation of the running of the coupling alpha_s in QCD with two flavours of dynamical fermions in the Schroedinger functional scheme. We improve our previous results by a reliable continuum extrapolation. The Lambda-parameter characterizing the high-energy running is related to the value of the coupling at low energy in the continuum limit. An estimate of Lambda*r_0 is given using large-volume data with lattice spacings a from 0.07 fm to 0.1 fm. It translates into Lambda_{MSbar}^{(2)}=245(16)(16) MeV [assuming r_0=0.5 fm]. The last step still has to be improved to reduce the uncertainty., Comment: 34 pages including figures and tables, latex2e

I consider the recent proposal by R. Frezzotti and G. Rossi to chirally improve Wilson fermions in such a way that mixings among operators of different chirality can be excluded. The method, which is based on the use of twisted mass QCD with several replica of valence quarks, is extended here to static-light systems. The operators relevant for the computation of the B_B parameter (in the static approximation) are discussed. In this case the same renormalization pattern as for Ginsparg-Wilson fermions is obtained by a simple modification of the discretization of the action for valence quarks., Comment: 3 pages, talk given at Lattice2004(heavy), Fermilab, June 21-26, 2004

As a feasibility study for a scaling test we investigate the behavior of algorithms for dynamical fermions in the N_f=2 Schroedinger functional at an intermediate volume of 1 fm^4. Simulations were performed using HMC with two pseudo-fermions and PHMC at lattice spacings of approximately 0.1 and 0.07 fm. We show that some algorithmic problems are due to large cutoff-effects in the spectrum of the improved Wilson-Dirac operator and disappear at the smaller lattice spacing. The problems discussed here are not expected to be specific to the Schroedinger functional., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, Sec. 2 extended, few references added. Accepted for publication in Comp. Phys. Comm

Non-perturbative lattice studies of QCD in the chiral thermodynamic regime, where chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken, require to deal with almost quark zero modes in a theoretically clean and computationally efficient way. We discuss the basic features and some realistic tests of a formulation, known as lattice tmQCD, that fulfills these requirements. Based on a talk given by R. Frezzotti at the conference HEP2001 (Budapest, July 2001), Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of the conference HEP2001 (Budapest, July 2001), to appear on JHEP-Proceedings: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table