Search

We compute the baryonic screening masses with nucleon quantum numbers and its negative parity partner in thermal QCD with $N_f=3$ massless quarks for a wide range of temperatures, from $T \sim 1$ GeV up to $\sim 160$ GeV. The computation is performed by Monte Carlo simulations of lattice QCD with $O(a)$-improved Wilson fermions by exploiting a recently proposed strategy to study non-perturbatively QCD at very high temperature. Very large spatial extensions are considered in order to have negligible finite volume effects. For each temperature we have simulated $3$ or $4$ values of the lattice spacing, so as to perform the continuum limit extrapolation with confidence at a few permille accuracy. The degeneracy of the positive and negative parity-state screening masses, expected from Ward identities associated to non-singlet axial transformations, provides further evidence for the restoration of chiral symmetry in the high temperature regime of QCD. In the entire range of temperatures explored, the baryonic masses deviate from the free theory result, $3 \pi T$, by $4$-$8\%$. The contribution due to the interactions is clearly visible up to the highest temperature considered, and cannot be explained by the expected leading behavior in the QCD coupling constant $g$ over the entire range of temperatures explored., Comment: 8 pages, 4 tables and 4 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2112.05427

The aim of this work is to introduce simplicial attention networks (SANs), i.e., novel neural architectures that operate on data defined on simplicial complexes leveraging masked self-attentional layers. Hinging on formal arguments from topological signal processing, we introduce a proper self-attention mechanism able to process data components at different layers (e.g., nodes, edges, triangles, and so on), while learning how to weight both upper and lower neighborhoods of the given topological domain in a totally task-oriented fashion. The proposed SANs generalize most of the current architectures available for processing data defined on simplicial complexes. The proposed approach compares favorably with other methods when applied to different (inductive and transductive) tasks such as trajectory prediction and missing data imputations in citation complexes., Comment: In V2, we change the title in Simplicial Attention Neural Networks, since we discovered the paper 1 that shares the same title of V1 and was available on OpenReview a few days before our first submission. In V2, we cite 1, clarifying the several differences with our method and adding extensive numerical comparisons. 1 Christopher W. et al., Simplicial attention networks. Avbl on OpenReview

We present an exploratory numerical study on the lattice of the color structure of the wave functionals of the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory in the presence of a $q\bar q$ static pair. In a spatial box with periodic boundary conditions we discuss the fact that all states contributing to the Feynman propagation kernel are global color singlets. We confirm this numerically by computing the correlations of gauge-fixed Polyakov lines with color-twisted boundary conditions in the time direction. The values of the lowest energies in the color singlet and octet external source sectors agree within statistical errors, confirming that both channels contribute to the lowest (global singlet) state of the Feynman kernel. We then study the case of homogeneous boundary conditions in the time direction for which the gauge-fixing is not needed. In this case the lowest energies extracted in the singlet external source sector agree with those determined with periodic boundary conditions, while in the octet sector the correlator is compatible with being null within our statistical errors. Therefore consistently only the singlet external source contribution has a non-vanishing overlap with the null-field wave functional., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

We investigate two-point correlation functions of left-handed currents computed in quenched lattice QCD with the Neuberger-Dirac operator. We consider two lattice spacings a~0.09,0.12 fm and two different lattice extents L~ 1.5, 2.0 fm; quark masses span both the p- and the epsilon-regimes. We compare the results with the predictions of quenched chiral perturbation theory, with the purpose of testing to what extent the effective theory reproduces quenched QCD at low energy. In the p-regime we test volume and quark mass dependence of the pseudoscalar decay constant and mass; in the epsilon-regime, we investigate volume and topology dependence of the correlators. While the leading order behaviour predicted by the effective theory is very well reproduced by the lattice data in the range of parameters that we explored, our numerical data are not precise enough to test next-to-leading order effects., Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures

In this second report on our recent numerical simulations of two-flavour QCD, we provide further technical details on the simulations and describe the methods we used to extract the meson masses and decay constants from the generated ensembles of gauge fields. Among the topics covered are the choice of the DD-HMC parameters, the issue of stability, autocorrelations and the statistical error analysis. Extensive data tables are included as well as a short discussion of the quark-mass dependence in partially quenched QCD, supplementing the physics analysis that was presented in the first paper in this series., Comment: TeX source, 35 pages, figures included

Recent conceptual, algorithmic and technical advances allow numerical simulations of lattice QCD with Wilson quarks to be performed at significantly smaller quark masses than was possible before. Here we report on simulations of two-flavour QCD at sea-quark masses from slightly above to approximately 1/4 of the strange-quark mass, on lattices with up to 64x32^3 points and spacings from 0.05 to 0.08 fm. Physical sea-quark effects are clearly seen on these lattices, while the lattice effects appear to be quite small, even without O(a) improvement. A striking result is that the dependence of the pion mass on the sea-quark mass is accurately described by leading-order chiral perturbation theory up to meson masses of about 500 MeV., Comment: TeX source, 17 pages, figures included

We compute the leading-order low-energy constants of the DeltaS=1 effective weak Hamiltonian in the quenched approximation of QCD with up, down, strange, and charm quarks degenerate and light. They are extracted by comparing the predictions of finite volume chiral perturbation theory with lattice QCD computations of suitable correlation functions carried out with quark masses ranging from a few MeV up to half of the physical strange mass. We observe a large DeltaI=1/2 enhancement in this corner of the parameter space of the theory. Although matching with the experimental result is not observed for the DeltaI=1/2 amplitude, our computation suggests large QCD contributions to the physical DeltaI=1/2 rule in the GIM limit, and represents the first step to quantify the role of the charm quark-mass in K-->pipi amplitudes., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Minor modifications. Final version to appear on PRL

We outline a general strategy for the non-perturbative renormalisation of composite operators in discretisations based on Neuberger fermions, via a matching to results obtained with Wilson-type fermions. As an application, we consider the renormalisation of the four-quark operators entering the Delta S=1 and Delta S=2 effective Hamiltonians. Our results are an essential ingredient for the determination of the low-energy constants governing non-leptonic kaon decays., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures

We study the spectral gap of the Wilson--Dirac operator in two-flavour lattice QCD as a function of the lattice spacing $a$, the space-time volume $V$ and the current-quark mass $m$. It turns out that the median of the probability distribution of the gap scales proportionally to $m$ and that its width is practically equal to $a/\sqrt{V}$. In particular, numerical simulations are safe from accidental zero modes in the large-volume regime of QCD., Comment: Plain TeX source, 23 pages, 8 figures

We present our preliminary results for three-point correlation functions involving the operators entering the $\Delta{S}=1$ effective Hamiltonian with an active charm quark, obtained using overlap fermions in the quenched approximation. This is the first computation carried out for valence quark masses small enough so as to permit a matching to Quenched Chiral Perturbation Theory in the $\epsilon$-regime. The commonly observed large statistical fluctuations are tamed by means of low-mode averaging techniques, combined with restrictions to individual topological sectors. We also discuss the matching of the resulting hadronic matrix elements to the effective low-energy constants for $\Delta{S}=1$ transitions. This involves (a) finite-volume corrections which can be evaluated at NLO in Quenched Chiral Perturbation Theory, and (b) the short-distance renormalization of the relevant four-quark operators in discretizations based on the overlap operator. We discuss perturbative estimates for the renormalization factors and possible strategies for their non-perturbative evaluation. Our results can be used to isolate the long-distance contributions to the $\Delta I=1/2$ rule, coming from physics effects around the intrinsic QCD scale., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, talks presented at Lattice 2005 (Weak matrix elements)

We report on recent work on the determination of low-energy constants describing Delta{S}=1 weak transitions, in order to investigate the origins of the Delta{I}=1/2 rule. We focus on numerical techniques designed to enhance the statistical signal in three-point correlation functions computed with overlap fermions near the chiral limit., Comment: Talk presented at Lattice2004(weak), Fermilab, 21-26 June 2004, 3 pages, 2 figures

We present a strategy designed to separate several possible origins of the well-known enhancement of the Delta{I}=1/2 amplitude in non-leptonic kaon decays. In particular, we seek to disentangle the contribution of physics at the typical QCD scale (soft-gluon exchange) from the effects at the scale of the charm quark mass. This is achieved by considering QCD with an unphysically light charm quark, so that the theory possesses an approximate SU(4)_L x SU(4)_R chiral symmetry. By computing the relevant operator matrix elements and monitoring their values as the charm quark mass departs from the SU(4)-symmetric situation, the role of the charm quark can be assessed. We study the influence of the charm quark mass in Chiral Perturbation Theory. First results from lattice simulations in the SU(4)-symmetric limit are also discussed., Comment: Latex, 41 pages, 5 figures

We present the first numerical implementation of a non-perturbative renormalization method for lattice operators, based on the study of correlation functions in coordinate space at short Euclidean distance. The method is applied to compute the renormalization constants of bilinear quark operators for the non-perturbative O(a)-improved Wilson action in the quenched approximation. The matching with perturbative schemes, such as MS-bar, is computed at the next-to-leading order in continuum perturbation theory. A feasibility study of this technique with Neuberger fermions is also presented., Comment: 11 pages and 9 figures, LaTeX2e

We show that, if the formula for the topological charge density operator suggested by fermions obeying the Ginsparg-Wilson relation is employed, it is possible to give a precise and unambiguous definition of the topological susceptibility in full QCD, chi_tL, for finite quark masses on the lattice. The lattice expression of chi_tL looks like the formal continuum one, in the sense that no power divergent subtractions are needed for its proper definition. As a consequence, the small mass behaviour of chi_tL leads directly to a multiplicative renormalizable definition of the chiral condensate that does not require any power divergent subtraction., Comment: 11 pages, no figures

We investigate a new numerical procedure to compute fermionic correlation functions at very small quark masses. Large statistical fluctuations, due to the presence of local ``bumps'' in the wave functions associated with the low-lying eigenmodes of the Dirac operator, are reduced by an exact low-mode averaging. To demonstrate the feasibility of the technique, we compute the two-point correlator of the left-handed vector current with Neuberger fermions in the quenched approximation, for lattices with a linear extent of L~1.5 fm, a lattice spacing a~0.09 fm, and quark masses down to the epsilon-regime. By matching the results with the corresponding (quenched) chiral perturbation theory expressions, an estimate of (quenched) low-energy constants can be obtained. We find agreement between the quenched values of F extrapolated from the p-regime and extracted in the epsilon-regime., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures

By matching 1/m^2 divergences in finite-volume two-point correlation functions of the scalar or pseudoscalar densities with those obtained in chiral perturbation theory, we derive a relation between the Dirac operator zero-mode eigenfunctions at fixed non-trivial topology and the low-energy constants of QCD. We investigate the feasibility of using this relation to extract the pion decay constant, by computing the zero-mode correlation functions on the lattice in the quenched approximation and comparing them with the corresponding expressions in quenched chiral perturbation theory., Comment: 31 pages. v2: references and a small clarification added; published version

We present an exploratory study of a gauge-invariant non-perturbative renormalization technique. The renormalization conditions are imposed on correlation functions of composite operators in coordinate space on the lattice. Numerical results for bilinears obtained with overlap and O(a)-improved Wilson fermions are presented. The measurement of the quark condensate is also discussed., Comment: Lattice2003(improve), 3 pages

We present an exploratory calculation of the standard model Delta S=2 matrix element relevant for indirect CP violation in K -> pi pi decays. The computation is performed with overlap fermions in the quenched approximation at beta=6.0 on a 16^3x32 lattice. The resulting bare matrix element is renormalized non-perturbatively. Our preliminary result is B_K^{NDR}(2 GeV)=0.61(7), where the error does not yet include an estimate of systematic uncertainties., Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, Lattice2002(matrixel). Parallel session talk by L. Lellouch at the 20th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2002), Boston, Massachusetts, 24-29 June 2002

In lattice QCD it is possible, in principle, to determine the parameters in the effective chiral lagrangian (including weak interaction couplings) by performing numerical simulations in the $\epsilon$--regime, i.e. at quark masses where the physical extent of the lattice is much smaller than the Compton wave length of the pion. The use of a formulation of the lattice theory that preserves chiral symmetry is attractive in this context, but the numerical implementation of any such approach requires special care in this kinematical situation due to the presence of some very low eigenvalues of the Dirac operator. We discuss a set of techniques (low-mode preconditioning and adapted-precision algorithms in particular) that make such computations numerically safe and more efficient by a large factor., Comment: Plain TeX source, 32 pages, figures included

I review recent progress and results in lattice QCD obtained using fermions with exact chiral symmetry., Comment: Invited plenary talk given at 20th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory Lattice2002(plenary), Boston, Massachusetts, 24-29 Jun 2002. Latex 12 pages, 8 figures

The gauge dependence of some fermion bilinear RI/MOM renormalization constants is studied 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 below the statistical errors of our data sample which is of the order of (1-1.5)%., Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, Lattice2002(theoretical)

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 figures

We present the results of an exploratory numerical study of two dimensional QCD with overlap fermions. We have performed extensive simulations for U(N_c) and SU(N_c) color groups with N_c=2, 3, 4 and coupling constants chosen to satisfy the 't Hooft condition g^2 N_c =const=4/3. We have computed the meson spectrum and decay constants, the topological susceptibility and the chiral condensate. For U(N_c) gauge groups, our results indicate that the Witten-Veneziano relation is satisfied within our statistical errors and that the chiral condensate for N_f=1 is compatible with a non-zero value. Our results exhibit universality in N_c and confirm once more the excellent chiral properties of the overlap-Dirac operator., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures

We study Fermi fields defined on tori in the presence of gauge backgrounds carrying non-trivial topology. We show that 2k dimensional field space can alternatively be described by fields over a k-dimensional space. This dual description is particularly natural when the background is uniform and abelian. The reduction in number of dimensions carries over to the lattice. The lattice ultraviolet regularization induces an infrared regularization of the lower dimensional representations. We focus on k=1,2., Comment: latex, 38 pages and 2 eps figures. New version with change in author address only. To be published in Phys. Rev. D

We present results of a quenched QCD simulation with overlap fermions on a lattice of volume V = 16^3X32 at beta=6.0, which corresponds approximatively to a lattice cutoff of 2 GeV and an extension of 1.4 fm. From the two-point correlation functions of bilinear operators we extract the pseudoscalar meson masses and the corresponding decay constants. From the GMOR relation we determine the chiral condensate and, by using the K-meson mass as experimental input, we compute the sum of the strange and average up-down quark masses (m_s + \hat m). The needed logarithmic divergent renormalization constant Z_S is computed with the RI/MOM non-perturbative renormalization technique. Since the overlap preserves chiral symmetry at finite cutoff and volume, no divergent quark mass and chiral condensate additive renormalizations are required and the results are O(a) improved., Comment: LATTICE2001(Chiral Fermions and Gauge Theories), 9 pages, 5 figure, CPT 2001/P.4250

We present some results of a numerical investigation of the 't Hooft model with 2,3 and 4 colors, regularized on the lattice with overlap fermions., Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, Lattice2001(chiral)

We present data for the gluon and quark propagators computed in the standard lattice Landau's gauge and for three values of the covariant gauge-fixing parameter lambda=0,8,16. Our results are obtained using the SU(3) Wilson action in the quenched approximation at beta=6.0 and volume=16^3x32., Comment: Lattice2001(theorydevelop)

If the expression of the topological charge density operator, suggested by fermions obeying the Ginsparg--Wilson relation, is employed, it is possible to prove on the lattice the validity of the Witten--Veneziano formula for the $\eta'$ mass. Recent numerical results from simulations with overlap fermions in 2 (abelian Schwinger model) and 4 (QCD) dimensions give values for the mass of the lightest pseudo-scalar flavour-singlet state that agree with theoretical expectations and/or experimental data., Comment: 3 pages, talk presented by G.C. Rossi at Lattice2001(theorydevelop)

We show how it is possible to give a precise and unambiguous implementation of the Witten--Veneziano formula for the eta' mass on the lattice, which looks like the formal continuum one, if the expression of the topological charge density operator, suggested by fermions obeying the Ginsparg--Wilson relation, is employed. By using recent numerical results from simulations with overlap fermions in 2 (abelian Schwinger model) and 4 (QCD) dimensions, one obtains values for the mass of the lightest pseudo-scalar flavour-singlet state that agree within errors with theoretical expectations and experimental data, respectively., Comment: Expanded discussion in section three and in the conclusions

We present the results of a computation of the sum of the strange and average up-down quark masses with overlap fermions in the quenched approximation. Since the overlap regularization preserves chiral symmetry at finite cutoff and volume, no additive quark mass renormalization is required and the results are O(a) improved. Our simulations are performed at beta=6.0 and volume V=16^3X32, which correspond to a lattice cutoff of ~2 GeV and to an extension of ~1.4 fm. The logarithmically divergent renormalization constant has been computed non-perturbatively in the RI/MOM scheme. By using the K-meson mass as experimental input, we obtain (m_s + m_l)^RI(2 GeV) = 120(7)(21) MeV, which corresponds m_s^MS (2 GeV) = 102(6)(18) MeV if continuum perturbation theory and ChiPT are used. By using the GMOR relation we also obtain ^MS(2 GeV)/N_f = - 0.0190(11)(33) GeV^3 = - [267(5)(15) MeV]^3., Comment: Latex, 16 pages, 10 figures

We review many topics and results about numeric gauge fixing in lattice QCD., Comment: 47 pages, 16 eps figures. Review article sent to IJMPA

We study the renormalization of the DeltaS=1 effective weak Hamiltonian with overlap fermions. The mixing coefficients among dimension-six operators are computed at one loop in perturbation theory. As a consequence of the chiral symmetry at finite lattice spacing and of the GIM mechanism, which turns out to be quadratic in the masses, the K-->pi pi and K -->pi matrix elements relevant for the Delta I =1/2 rule can be computed without any power subtractions. The analogous amplitudes for e'/e require one divergent subtraction only, which can be performed non-perturbatively using K-->0 matrix elements., Comment: Latex, 19 pages, minor changes, to appear on Phys. Rev. D

We propose new techniques to implement numerically the overlap-Dirac operator which exploit the physical properties of the underlying theory to avoid nested algorithms. We test these procedures in the two-dimensional Schwinger model and the results are very promising. We also present a detailed computation of the spectrum and chiral properties of the Schwinger Model in the overlap lattice formulation., Comment: Lattice 2000 (Chiral Fermions)

We illustrate preliminary results on the gluon propagator computed in generic covariant lattice gauges in the quenched approximation with the Wilson action. We have applied a recently proposed procedure to fix a generic covariant gauge on the lattice. We make a comparison among results obtained at two different values of the gauge parameter and in the standard Landau's gauge., Comment: Lattice 2000 (Algorithms)

The renormalization of the most general dimension-six four-fermion operators without power subtractions is studied at one loop in lattice perturbation theory using overlap fermions. As expected, operators with different chirality do not mix among themselves and parity-conserving and parity-violating multiplets renormalize in the same way. The renormalization constants of unimproved and improved operators are also the same. These mixing factors are necessary to determine physical matrix elements relevant to many phenomenological applications of weak interactions. The most important are the K0-K0bar and B0-B0bar mixings in the Standard Model and beyond, the Delta I =1/2 rule and epsilon'/epsilon., Comment: Latex, 24 pages, 1 figure included

We perform a comparative study of the ratio of lattice (Wilson fermion) renormalization constants Z_P/Z_S, obtained non-perturbatively from the RI/MOM renormalization conditions and from Ward Identities of on- and off-shell Green's functions. The off-shell Ward Identity used in this work relies on correlation functions with non-degenerate quark masses. We find that, due to discretization effects, there is a 10-15% discrepancy between the two Ward Identity determinations at current bare couplings (beta values). The RI/MOM result is in the same range and has a similar systematic error of 10-15%. Thus, contrary to a previous claim, the contamination of the RI/MOM result from the presence of a Goldstone pole at scales of about 2 GeV is subdominant, compared to finite cutoff effects., Comment: LATEX, 12 pages final version to appear on Phys. Lett. B

Several quantities relevant to phenomenological studies of the mixing of neutral B mesons are computed on the lattice. Our main results are: f_{Bd} sqrt(B_{Bd})=206(28)(7) MeV, f_{Bs} sqrt(B_{Bs})/f_{Bd}sqrt(B_{Bd})=1.16(7). We also obtain the related quantities f_{Bs}sqrt(B{Bs})=237(18)(8) MeV, f_{Bd}= 174(22)(+7-0)(-4-0) MeV, f_{Bs}= 204(15)(+7-0)(+3-0) MeV, f_{Bs}/f_{Bd}=1.17(4)(+0-1), f_{Bd}/f_{Ds}=0.74(5). After combining our results with the experimental world average (Delta m_d), we predict (Delta m_s)=15.8(2.1)(3.3) ps^{-1}. We have also computed the relevant parameters for mixing of neutral D mesons which may be useful in some extensions of the Standard Model. All the quantities were obtained from a quenched simulation with a non-perturbatively improved Clover action at beta=6.2, corresponding to a lattice spacing 1/a=2.7(1) GeV, on a sample of 200 gauge-field configurations. A discussion of the main systematic errors is also presented., Comment: 21 pages (LaTeX2e), 5 PostScript figures

By combining the first unquenched lattice computation of the B-meson binding energy and the two-loop contribution to the lattice HQET residual mass, we determine the (\bar{{MS}}) (b)-quark mass, (\bar{m}_{b}(\bar{m}_{b})). The inclusion of the two-loop corrections is essential to extract (\bar{m}_{b}(\bar{m}_{b})) with a precision of ({\cal O}(\Lambda^{2}_{QCD}/m_{b})), which is the uncertainty due to the renormalon singularities in the perturbative series of the residual mass. Our best estimate is (\bar{m}_{b}(\bar{m}_{b}) = (4.26 \pm 0.09) {\rm GeV}), where we have combined the different errors in quadrature. A detailed discussion of the systematic errors contributing to the final number is presented. Our results have been obtained on a sample of (60) lattices of size (24^{3}\times 40) at (\beta =5.6), using the Wilson action for light quarks and the lattice HQET for the (b) quark, at two values of the sea quark masses. The quark propagators have been computed using the unquenched links generated by the T(\chi)L Collaboration., Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure

In this poster we present a few preliminary results obtained using our method to fix generic covariant gauges on the lattice. We have computed the gluon propagator and we have found a sensitive dependence on the gauge parameter., Comment: 4 pages, 1 eps figure. Poster presented at NATO workshop "Lattice Fermions and Structure of the Vacuum", DUBNA, Oct 1999

We propose a non-perturbative procedure to fix generic covariant gauges on the lattice. Varying the gauge parameter, this gauge fixing provides a concrete method to check numerically the gauge dependence of correlators measured on the lattice. The new algorithm turns out to converge with a good efficiency. As a preliminary physical result, we find a sensitive dependence of the gluon propagator on the gauge parameter., Comment: 10 pages (LaTeX2e), 5 eps figures

We introduce a new parameterization of four-fermion operator matrix elements which does not involve quark masses and thus allows a reduction of systematic uncertainties. In order to simplify the matching between lattice and continuum renormalization schemes, we express our results in terms of renormalization group invariant B-parameters which are renormalization-scheme and scale independent. As an application of our proposal, matrix elements of DI=3/2 and SUSY DS =2 operators have been computed. The calculations have been performed using the tree-level improved Clover lattice action at two different values of the strong coupling constant (beta=6/g^2=6.0 and 6.2), in the quenched approximation. Renormalization constants and mixing coefficients of lattice operators have been obtained non-perturbatively. Using lowest order ChiPT, we also obtain ^{NDR}_{I=2} = (0.11\pm 0.02) GeV^4 and ^{NDR}_{I=2} = (0.51\pm 0.05) GeV^4 at mu=2 GeV., Comment: LATEX, 17 pages, 1 figure included

Lattice calculations of matrix elements relevant for kaon decays, and in particular for epsilon'/epsilon, are reviewed. The role of the strange quark mass is also discussed. A comparison with other non-perturbative approaches used to compute kaon decay amplitudes is made., Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages. Invited talk at KAON `99, June 21-26, 1999, Chicago IL, USA

We perform a combined analysis of the unitarity triangle and of the CP violating parameter epsilon'/epsilon using the most recent determination of the relevant experimental data and, whenever possible, hadronic matrix elements from lattice QCD. We discuss the role of the main non-perturbative parameters and make a comparison with other recent analyses. We use lattice results for the matrix element of Q_8 obtained without reference to the strange quark mass. Since a reliable lattice determination of the matrix element of Q_6 is still missing, the theoretical predictions for epsilon'/epsilon suffer from large uncertainties. By evaluating this matrix element with the vacuum-saturation approximation, we typically find as central value epsilon'/epsilon = (4 - 7) x 10^(-4). We conclude that the experimental data suggest large deviation of the value of the matrix element of Q_6 from the vacuum-saturation approximation, possibly due to penguin contractions., Comment: LaTeX2e, 31 pages. 5 eps figures included

We describe how to overcome some problems that usually prevent from obtaining an efficient algorithm to fix a generic covariant gauge on the lattice. This gauge is the lattice equivalent of the generic gauge usually adopted in perturbative calculations. It depends on a parameter whose value can be varied in order to check the gauge dependence of measured matrix elements., Comment: 3 pages, 2 eps figures, LATTICE 99

By combining the first unquenched lattice computation of the B-meson binding energy with the recently calculated two-loop contribution to the lattice HQET mass, we determine the $\bar{MS}$ b-quark mass, $\bar{m}_{b}(\bar{m}_{b})$ at the NNLO. We find $\bar{m}_{b}(\bar{m}_{b}) = (4.26\pm 0.03 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.05) {\rm GeV}$. The inclusion of the two-loop effects is one of the steps necessary to extract $\bar{m}_{b}(\bar{m}_{b})$ with a precision better than ${\cal O}(\Lambda_{QCD})$, which is the uncertainty due to the presence of an IR renormalon singularity in the perturbative series of the residual mass. Our results have been obtained on a sample of 60 lattices of size $24^{3}\times 40$ at $\beta=5.6$, using the unquenched Wilson action with two degenerate sea quarks. The quark propagators have been computed using the unquenched links generated by the T$\chi$L Collaboration., Comment: LATTICE99(Heavy Quarks), 3 pages