Search

We report on our study of the Riemannian Manifold HMC (RMHMC) algorithm with the mass term for the gauge momenta replaced by rational functions of the gauge covariant Laplace operator. A comparison of HMC and RMHMC on a 2+1+1 flavor dynamical ensemble with lattice spacing a ~0.05fm shows increased rate of change in long distance modes, identified by Wilson flowed energy, per fermion molecular dynamics step., Comment: Proceedings of the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31st - August 4th, 2023, Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA

We present a lattice calculation of the $K\to\pi\pi$ matrix elements and amplitudes with both the $\Delta I = 3/2$ and 1/2 channels and $\varepsilon'$, the measure of direct $CP$ violation. We use periodic boundary conditions (PBC), where the correct kinematics of $K\to\pi\pi$ can be achieved via an excited two-pion final state. To overcome the difficulty associated with the extraction of excited states, our previous work \cite{Bai:2015nea,RBC:2020kdj} successfully employed G-parity boundary conditions, where pions are forced to have non-zero momentum enabling the $I=0$ two-pion ground state to express the on-shell kinematics of the $K\to\pi\pi$ decay. Here instead we overcome the problem using the variational method which allows us to resolve the two-pion spectrum and matrix elements up to the relevant energy where the decay amplitude is on-shell. In this paper we report an exploratory calculation of $K\to\pi\pi$ decay amplitudes and $\varepsilon'$ using PBC on a coarser lattice size of $24^3\times64$ with inverse lattice spacing $a^{-1}=1.023$ GeV and the physical pion and kaon masses. The results are promising enough to motivate us to continue our measurements on finer lattice ensembles in order to improve the precision in the near future.

The hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment, $(g-2$)/2, is computed in the infinite volume QED framework with lattice QCD. We report $a_\mu^\text{HLbL}=12.47(1.15)(0.95) \times 10^{-10}$ where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. The result is mainly based on the 2+1 flavor M\"obius domain wall fermion ensemble with inverse lattice spacing $a^{-1} = 1.73~\mathrm{GeV}$, lattice size $L=5.5~\mathrm{fm}$, and $m_\pi = 139~\mathrm{MeV}$, generated by the RBC-UKQCD collaborations. The leading systematic error of this result comes from the lattice discretization. This result is consistent with previous determinations., Comment: 29 pages

A study of two-pion scattering for the isospin channels, $I=0$ and $I=2$, using lattice QCD is presented. M\"obius domain wall fermions on top of the Iwasaki-DSDR gauge action for gluons with periodic boundary conditions are used for the lattice computations which are carried out on two ensembles of gauge field configurations generated by the RBC and UKQCD collaborations with physical masses, inverse lattice spacings of 1.023 and 1.378 GeV, and spatial extents of $L=4.63$ and 4.58 fm, respectively. The all-to-all propagator method is employed to compute a matrix of correlation functions of two-pion operators. The generalized eigenvalue problem (GEVP) is solved for a matrix of correlation functions to extract phase shifts with multiple states, two pions with a non-zero relative momentum as well as two pions at rest. Our results for phase shifts for both $I=0$ and $I=2$ channels are consistent with and the Roy Equation and chiral perturbation theory, though at this preliminary stage our errors for $I=0$ are large. An important outcome of this work is that we are successful in extracting two-pion excited states, which are useful for studying $K\to\pi\pi$ decay, on physical-mass ensembles using GEVP.

We construct an approximate trivializing map by using a Schwinger-Dyson equation. The advantage of this method is that: (1) The basis for the flow kernel can be chosen arbitrarily by hand. (2) It can be applied to the general action of interest. (3) The coefficients in the kernel are determined by lattice estimates of the observables, which does not require analytic calculations beforehand. We perform the HMC with the effective action obtained by the Schwinger-Dyson method, and show that we can have better control of the effective action than the known $t$-expansion construction. However, the algorithmic overhead is still large and overwhelming the gain though faster decorrelation is observed for long-range observables in some cases. This contribution reports the preliminary results of this attempt., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, talk presented at the 39th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2022)

Contribution from the USQCD Collaboration to the Proceedings of the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021)., Comment: 27 pp. main text, 4 pp. appendices, 29 pp. references, 1 p. index

The search for new physics requires a joint experimental and theoretical effort. Lattice QCD is already an essential tool for obtaining precise model-free theoretical predictions of the hadronic processes underlying many key experimental searches, such as those involving heavy flavor physics, the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, nucleon-neutrino scattering, and rare, second-order electroweak processes. As experimental measurements become more precise over the next decade, lattice QCD will play an increasing role in providing the needed matching theoretical precision. Achieving the needed precision requires simulations with lattices with substantially increased resolution. As we push to finer lattice spacing we encounter an array of new challenges. They include algorithmic and software-engineering challenges, challenges in computer technology and design, and challenges in maintaining the necessary human resources. In this white paper we describe those challenges and discuss ways they are being dealt with. Overcoming them is key to supporting the community effort required to deliver the needed theoretical support for experiments in the coming decade., Comment: Contribution to Snowmass 2021. 22 pages

The decays and mixing of $K$ mesons are remarkably sensitive to the weak interactions of quarks and leptons at high energies. They provide important tests of the standard model at both first and second order in the Fermi constant $G_F$ and offer a window into possible new phenomena at energies as high as 1,000 TeV. These possibilities become even more compelling as the growing capabilities of lattice QCD make high-precision standard model predictions possible. Here we discuss and attempt to forecast some of these capabilities., Comment: submitted to the Rare Processes and Precision, Theory and Computational Frontiers for the Proceedings of the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021)

We study the chirality of staggered quarks on the Dirac eigenvalue spectrum using deep learning (DL) techniques. The Kluberg-Stern method to construct staggered bilinear operators conserves continuum property such as recursion relations, uniqueness of chirality, and Ward identities, which leads to a unique and characteristic pattern (we call it "leakage pattern (LP)") in the matrix elements of the chirality operator sandwiched between two quark eigenstates of staggered Dirac operator. DL analysis gives $99.4(2)\%$ accuracy on normal gauge configurations and $0.998$ AUC (Area Under ROC Curve) for classifying non-zero mode octets in the Dirac eigenvalue spectrum. It confirms that the leakage pattern is universal on normal gauge configurations. The multi-layer perceptron (MLP) method turns out to be the best DL model for our study on the LP., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, Lattice 2021 proceeding

We calculate $K\to\pi\pi$ matrix elements using periodic boundary conditions as an independent calculation from our previous study with G-parity boundary conditions. We present our preliminary results for $K\to\pi\pi$ three-point functions and matrix elements on a $24^3, a^{-1} = 1$~GeV, $2+1$-flavor M\"obius DWF ensemble at physical pion and kaon masses generated by the RBC and UKQCD collaborations and discuss the prospect for high-precision computation of $\varepsilon'$ with periodic boundary conditions., Comment: Proceedings of the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2021), July 26-30, 2021, Zoom/Gather@MIT

Critical slowing down presents a critical obstacle to lattice QCD calculation at the smaller lattice spacings made possible by Exascale computers. Inspired by the concept of Fourier acceleration, we study a version of the Riemannian Manifold HMC (RMHMC) algorithm in which the canonical mass term of the HMC algorithm is replaced by a rational function of the SU(3) gauge covariant Laplacian. We have developed a suite of tools using Chebyshev filters based on the SU(3) gauge covariant Laplacian that provides the power spectra of both the gauge and fermion forces and determines the spectral dependence of the resulting RMHMC evolution of long- and short-distance QCD observables. These tools can be used to optimize the RMHMC mass term and to monitor the resulting acceleration mode-wise., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2021 Lattice Proceedings

We show that using the multi-splitting algorithm as a preconditioner for the domain wall Dirac linear operator, arising in lattice QCD, effectively reduces the inter-node communication cost, at the expense of performing more on-node floating point and memory operations. Correctly including the boundary \textit{snake} terms, the preconditioner is implemented in the QUDA framework, where it is found that utilizing kernel fusion and the tensor cores on NVIDIA GPUs is necessary to achieve a sufficiently performant preconditioner. A reduced-dimension (reduced-$L_s$) strategy is also proposed and tested for the preconditioner. We find the method achieves lower time to solution than regular CG at high node count despite the additional local computational requirements from the preconditioner. This method could be useful for supercomputers with more on-node flops and memory bandwidth than inter-node communication bandwidth., Comment: Add DOI

We investigate general properties of the eigenvalue spectrum for improved staggered quarks. We introduce a new chirality operator $[\gamma_5 \otimes 1]$ and a new shift operator $[1 \otimes \xi_5]$, which respect the same recursion relation as the $\gamma_5$ operator in the continuum. Then we show that matrix elements of the chirality operator sandwiched between two eigenstates of the staggered Dirac operator are related to those of the shift operator by the Ward identity of the conserved $U(1)_A$ symmetry of staggered fermion actions. We perform a numerical study in quenched QCD using HYP staggered quarks to demonstrate the Ward identity. We introduce a new concept of leakage patterns which collectively represent the matrix elements of the chirality operator and the shift operator sandwiched between two eigenstates of the staggered Dirac operator. The leakage pattern provides a new method to identify zero modes and non-zero modes in the Dirac eigenvalue spectrum. This method is as robust as the spectral flow method but requires much less computing power. Analysis using a machine learning technique confirms that the leakage pattern is universal, since the staggered Dirac eigenmodes on normal gauge configurations respect it. In addition, the leakage pattern can be used to determine a ratio of renormalization factors as a by-product. We conclude that it might be possible and realistic to measure the topological charge $Q$ using the Atiya-Singer index theorem and the leakage pattern of the chirality operator in the staggered fermion formalism., Comment: 28 pages, 78 figures, 11 tables, references updated, more explanation added

We present a lattice QCD calculation of the $\Delta I=1/2$, $K\to\pi\pi$ decay amplitude $A_0$ and $\varepsilon'$, the measure of direct CP-violation in $K\to\pi\pi$ decay, improving our 2015 calculation of these quantities. Both calculations were performed with physical kinematics on a $32^3\times 64$ lattice with an inverse lattice spacing of $a^{-1}=1.3784(68)$ GeV. However, the current calculation includes nearly four times the statistics and numerous technical improvements allowing us to more reliably isolate the $\pi\pi$ ground-state and more accurately relate the lattice operators to those defined in the Standard Model. We find ${\rm Re}(A_0)=2.99(0.32)(0.59)\times 10^{-7}$ GeV and ${\rm Im}(A_0)=-6.98(0.62)(1.44)\times 10^{-11}$ GeV, where the errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. The former agrees well with the experimental result ${\rm Re}(A_0)=3.3201(18)\times 10^{-7}$ GeV. These results for $A_0$ can be combined with our earlier lattice calculation of $A_2$ to obtain ${\rm Re}(\varepsilon'/\varepsilon)=21.7(2.6)(6.2)(5.0) \times 10^{-4}$, where the third error represents omitted isospin breaking effects, and Re$(A_0)$/Re$(A_2) = 19.9(2.3)(4.4)$. The first agrees well with the experimental result of ${\rm Re}(\varepsilon'/\varepsilon)=16.6(2.3)\times 10^{-4}$. A comparison of the second with the observed ratio Re$(A_0)/$Re$(A_2) = 22.45(6)$, demonstrates the Standard Model origin of this "$\Delta I = 1/2$ rule" enhancement., Comment: Updated to published version. 95 pages, 12 figures

We study chiral properties of eigenvalue spectrum for staggered quarks. We present a new method to identify would-be zero modes and nonzero modes using their symmetry and chiral properties. Here, we review the traditional method with HYP improved staggered quarks, and extend it to a completely new method which uses the chiral Ward identities and leakage patterns to achieve the goal., Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables

We report the first result for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment with all errors systematically controlled. Several ensembles using 2+1 flavors of physical mass M\"obius domain-wall fermions, generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaborations, are employed to take the continuum and infinite volume limits of finite volume lattice QED+QCD. We find $a_\mu^{\rm HLbL} = 7.87(3.06)_\text{stat}(1.77)_\text{sys}\times 10^{-10}$. Our value is consistent with previous model results and leaves little room for this notoriously difficult hadronic contribution to explain the difference between the Standard Model and the BNL experiment.

We report nucleon mass, isovector vector and axial-vector charges, and tensor and scalar couplings, calculated using two recent 2+1-flavor dynamical domain-wall fermions lattice-QCD ensembles generated jointly by the RIKEN-BNL-Columbia and UKQCD collaborations. These ensembles were generated with Iwasaki $\times$ dislocation-suppressing-determinant-ratio gauge action at inverse lattice spacing of 1.378(7) GeV and pion mass values of 249.4(3) and 172.3(3) MeV. The nucleon mass extrapolates to a value $m_N = 0.950(5)$ GeV at physical point. The isovector vector charge renormalizes to unity in the chiral limit, narrowly constraining excited-state contamination in the calculation. The ratio of the isovector axial-vector to vector charges shows a deficit of about ten percent. The tensor coupling no longer depends on mass and extrapolates to 1.04(5) in $\overline {\rm MS}$ 2-GeV renormalization at physical point, in a good agreement with the value obtained at the lightest mass in our previous calculations and other calculations that followed. The scalar charge, though noisier, does not show mass dependence and is in agreement with other calculations., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review D, 11 pages, 13 figures and 7 tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1710.06656

We report preliminary results for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Several ensembles using 2+1 flavors of M\"obius domain-wall fermions, generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaborations, are employed to take the continuum and infinite volume limits of finite volume lattice QED+QCD. We find $a_\mu^{\rm HLbL} = (7.41\pm6.33)\times 10^{-10}$, Comment: 8 pages, 19 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Rencontres de Moriond (EW)

We report on the computation of the connected light quark vacuum polarization with 2+1+1 flavors of HISQ fermions at the physical point and its contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Three ensembles, generated by the MILC collaboration, are used to take the continuum limit. The finite volume correction to this result is computed in the (Euclidean) time-momentum representation to NNLO in chiral perturbation theory. We find $a_\mu^{ll}({\rm HVP})=(659\pm 20\pm 5\pm 5\pm 4)\times 10^{-10}$, where the errors are statistical and estimates of residual uncertainties from taking the continuum limit, scale setting, and truncation of chiral perturbation theory at NNLO. We compare our results with recent ones in the literature., Comment: We added the check if the errors above were underestimated for the window methods

In this and a set of companion whitepapers, the USQCD Collaboration lays out a program of science and computing for lattice gauge theory. These whitepapers describe how calculation using lattice QCD (and other gauge theories) can aid the interpretation of ongoing and upcoming experiments in particle and nuclear physics, as well as inspire new ones., Comment: 44 pages. 1 of USQCD whitepapers

The increasing imbalance between the computing capabilities of individual nodes and the internode bandwidth makes it highly desirable for any Lattice QCD algorithm to minimize the amount of internode communication. One of the relatively new methods for this is the `Split Grid' or `Split Domain' method, where data is rearranged within the running of a single binary, so that the routines which requires significant off-node communications such as Dirac operators are run on multiple smaller partitions in parallel with a better surface to volume ratio, while other routines are run in one partition. While it is relatively straightforward to utilize Split Grid method for inverters, the typical Lanczos algorithm which has one starting vector does not render itself naturally to Split Grid method. In this report we investigate the Block Lanczos algorithm(BL), which allows multiple starting vectors to be processed in parallel. It is shown that for a moderate number of starting vectors, BL achieves convergence comparable to similarly tuned Implicitly Restarted Lanczos algorithm (IRL) on 2+1-flavor physical DWF/M\"obius ensemble., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Presented at the 36th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory - LATTICE2018, 22-28 July, 2018, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Reference added

We report on the computation of the light quark vacuum polarization with 2+1+1 flavors of H ISQ fermions at the physical point and its contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Three ensembles, generated by the MILC collaboration, are used to take the continuum limit. We compare our result with recent ones in the literature., Comment: Talk at Lattice 2018 (Michigan State University). 7 pages, 8 figures

We present the preliminary tests on two modifications of the Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) algorithm. Both algorithms are designed to travel much farther in the Hamiltonian phase space for each trajectory and reduce the autocorrelations among physical observables thus tackling the critical slowing down towards the continuum limit. We present a comparison of costs of the new algorithms with the standard HMC evolution for pure gauge fields, studying the autocorrelation times for various quantities including the topological charge., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Lattice 2017 conference proceedings

We present a Lanczos algorithm utilizing multiple grids that reduces the memory requirements both on disk and in working memory by one order of magnitude for RBC/UKQCD's 48I and 64I ensembles at the physical pion mass. The precision of the resulting eigenvectors is on par with exact deflation., Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures; Talk given at the 35th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 18-24 June 2017, Granada, Spain

In our previous work, the connected and leading disconnected hadronic light-by-light contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment (g - 2) have been computed using lattice QCD ensembles corresponding to physical pion mass generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaboration. However, the calculation is expected to suffer from a significant finite volume error that scales like $1/L^2$ where $L$ is the spatial size of the lattice. In this paper, we demonstrate that this problem is cured by treating the muon and photons in infinite volume, continuum QED, resulting in a weighting function that is pre-computed and saved with affordable cost and sufficient accuracy. We present numerical results for the case when the quark loop is replaced by a muon loop, finding the expected exponential approach to the infinite volume limit and consistency with the known analytic result. We have implemented an improved weighting function which reduces both discretization and finite volume effects arising from the hadronic part of the amplitude., Comment: 12 pages

We report our recent lattice calculation of hadronic light-by-light contribution to muon $g-2$ using our recently developed moment method. The connected diagrams and the leading disconnected diagrams are included. The calculation is performed on a $48^3 \times 96$ lattice with physical pion mass and 5.5 fm box size. We expect sizable finite volume and finite lattice spacing corrections to the results of these calculations which will be estimated in calculations to be carried out over the next 1-2 years., Comment: 34th annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 24-30 July 2016, University of Southampton, UK. 7 pages

We report a lattice QCD calculation of the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment at physical pion mass. The calculation includes the connected diagrams and the leading, quark-line-disconnected diagrams. We incorporate algorithmic improvements developed in our previous work. The calculation was performed on the $48^3 \times 96$ ensemble generated with a physical-pion-mass and a 5.5 fm spatial extent by the RBC and UKQCD collaborations using the chiral, domain wall fermion (DWF) formulation. We find $a_\mu^{\text{HLbL}} = 5.35 (1.35) \times 10^{- 10}$, where the error is statistical only. The finite-volume and finite lattice-spacing errors could be quite large and are the subject of on-going research. The omitted disconnected graphs, while expected to give a correction of order 10\%, also need to be computed., Comment: 6 pages

The application of the Dirac operator on a spinor field, the Dslash operation, is the most computation-intensive part of the lattice QCD simulations. It is often the key kernel to optimize to achieve maximum performance on various platforms. Here we report on a project to optimize the domain wall fermion Dirac operator in Columbia Physics System (CPS) using the R-Stream source-to-source compiler. Our initial target platform is the Intel PC clusters. We discuss the optimization strategies involved before and after the automatic code generation with R-Stream and present some preliminary benchmark results., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Proceedings of the 33rd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 14 -18, 2015, Kobe, Japan

We present results for the matrix elements of the additional $\Delta S=2$ operators that appear in models of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), expressed in terms of four BSM $B$-parameters. Combined with experimental results for $\Delta M_K$ and $\epsilon_K$, these constrain the parameters of BSM models. We use improved staggered fermions, with valence HYP-smeared quarks and $N_f=2+1$ flavors of "asqtad" sea quarks. The configurations have been generated by the MILC collaboration. The matching between lattice and continuum four-fermion operators and bilinears is done perturbatively at one-loop order. We use three lattice spacings for the continuum extrapolation: $a\approx 0.09$, $0.06$ and $0.045\;$fm. Valence light-quark masses range down to $\approx m_s^{\rm phys}/13$ while the light sea-quark masses range down to $\approx m_s^{\rm phys}/20$. Compared to our previous published work, we have added four additional lattice ensembles, leading to better controlled extrapolations in the lattice spacing and sea-quark masses. We report final results for two renormalization scales, $\mu=2\;\text{GeV}$ and $3\;\text{GeV}$, and compare them to those obtained by other collaborations. Agreement is found for two of the four BSM $B$-parameters ($B_2$ and $B_3^\text{SUSY}$). The other two ($B_4$ and $B_5$) differ significantly from those obtained using RI-MOM renormalization as an intermediate scheme, but are in agreement with recent preliminary results obtained by the RBC-UKQCD collaboration using RI-SMOM intermediate schemes., Comment: 17 pages, 24 figures, 13 tables, and updated

We present the first calculation of the kaon semileptonic form factor with sea and valence quark masses tuned to their physical values in the continuum limit of 2+1 flavour domain wall lattice QCD. We analyse a comprehensive set of simulations at the phenomenologically convenient point of zero momentum transfer in large physical volumes and for two different values of the lattice spacing. Our prediction for the form factor is f+(0)=0.9685(34)(14) where the first error is statistical and the second error systematic. This result can be combined with experimental measurements of K->pi decays for a determination of the CKM-matrix element for which we predict |Vus|=0.2233(5)(9) where the first error is from experiment and the second error from the lattice computation., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables

We present updated results for kaon B-parameters for operators arising in models of new physics. We use HYP-smeared staggered quarks on the $N_f = 2+1$ MILC asqtad lattices. During the last year we have added new ensembles, which has necessitated chiral-continuum fitting with more elaborate fitting functions. We have also corrected an error in a two-loop anomalous dimension used to evolve results between different scales. Our results for the beyond-the-Standard-Model B-parameters have total errors of $5-10$\%. We find that the discrepancy observed last year between our results and those of the RBC/UKQCD and ETM collaborations for some of the B-parameters has been reduced from $4\!-\!5\,\sigma$ to $2\!-\!3\,\sigma$., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Lattice 2014 proceeding

We report on the first lattice calculation of the QCD phase transition using chiral fermions at physical values of the quark masses. This calculation uses 2+1 quark flavors, spatial volumes between (4 fm$)^3$ and (11 fm$)^3$ and temperatures between 139 and 196 MeV . Each temperature was calculated using a single lattice spacing corresponding to a temporal Euclidean extent of $N_t=8$. The disconnected chiral susceptibility, $\chi_{\rm disc}$ shows a pronounced peak whose position and height depend sensitively on the quark mass. We find no metastability in the region of the peak and a peak height which does not change when a 5 fm spatial extent is increased to 10 fm. Each result is strong evidence that the QCD ``phase transition'' is not first order but a continuous cross-over for $m_\pi=135$ MeV. The peak location determines a pseudo-critical temperature $T_c = 155(1)(8)$ MeV. Chiral $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$ symmetry is fully restored above 164 MeV, but anomalous $U(1)_A$ symmetry breaking is non-zero above $T_c$ and vanishes as $T$ is increased to 196 MeV., Comment: 6 pages and 4 figures

We present a new class of statistical error reduction techniques for Monte-Carlo simulations. Using covariant symmetries, we show that correlation functions can be constructed from inexpensive approximations without introducing any systematic bias in the final result. We introduce a new class of covariant approximation averaging techniques, known as all-mode averaging (AMA), in which the approximation takes account of contributions of all eigenmodes through the inverse of the Dirac operator computed from the conjugate gradient method with a relaxed stopping condition. In this paper we compare the performance and computational cost of our new method with traditional methods using correlation functions and masses of the pion, nucleon, and vector meson in $N_f=2+1$ lattice QCD using domain-wall fermions. This comparison indicates that AMA significantly reduces statistical errors in Monte-Carlo calculations over conventional methods for the same cost., Comment: 47 pages, 17 figures, reference added and minor revision, v2: added figure, published version

We present results for the kaon mixing parameter $B_K$ obtained using improved staggered fermions on a much enlarged set of MILC asqtad lattices. Compared to our previous publication, which was based largely on a single ensemble at each of the three lattice spacings $a\approx 0.09\;$fm, $0.06\;$fm and $0.045\;$fm, we have added seven new fine and four new superfine ensembles, with a range of values of the light and strange sea-quark masses. We have also increased the number of measurements on one of the original ensembles. This allows us to do controlled extrapolations in the light and strange sea-quark masses, which we do simultaneously with the continuum extrapolation. This reduces the extrapolation error and improves the reliability of our error estimates. Our final result is $\hat{B}_K = 0.7379 \pm 0.0047 (\text{stat}) \pm 0.0365 (\text{sys})$., Comment: 6 pages, 5 tables, 2 figures, updated references

We calculate the kaon mixing B-parameters for operators arising generically in theories of physics beyond the standard model. We use HYP-smeared improved staggered fermions on the $N_f = 2+1$ MILC asqtad lattices. Operator matching is done perturbatively at one-loop order. Chiral extrapolations are done using "golden combinations" in which one-loop chiral logarithms are absent. For the combined sea-quark mass and continuum extrapolation, we use three lattice spacings: $a \approx 0.045, 0.06$ and $0.09 \text{fm}$. Our results have a total error of 5-6%, which is dominated by the systematic error from matching and continuum extrapolation. For two of the BSM $B$-parameters, we agree with results obtained using domain-wall and twisted-mass dynamical fermions, but we disagree by $(4-5)\sigma$ for the other two., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Lattice 2013 Proceeding

We update our results for $B_K$ obtained using HYP-smeared staggered valence quarks on the MILC asqtad lattices. In the last year, we have added 5 new measurments on the fine ($a\approx 0.09\;$fm) ensembles, and 2 new measurements on the superfine ($a\approx 0.06\;$fm) ensembles. These allow a simultaneous extrapolation in $a^2$ and sea quark masses, reducing the corresponding systematic error significantly. Our updated result is $\hat{B}_K = 0.738 \pm 0.005 (\text{stat}) \pm 0.034 (\text{sys})$., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, Lattice 2013 proceeding

We report on a study of the finite-temperature QCD transition region for temperatures between 139 and 196 MeV, with a pion mass of 200 MeV and two space-time volumes: $24^3\times8$ and $32^3\times8$, where the larger volume varies in linear size between 5.6 fm (at T=139 MeV) and 4.0 fm (at T=195 MeV). These results are compared with the results of an earlier calculation using the same action and quark masses but a smaller, $16^3\times8$ volume. The chiral domain wall fermion formulation with a combined Iwasaki and dislocation suppressing determinant ratio gauge action are used. This lattice action accurately reproduces the $\sua$ and $\ua$ symmetries of the continuum. Results are reported for the chiral condensates, connected and disconnected susceptibilities and the Dirac eigenvalue spectrum. We find a pseudo-critical temperature, $T_c$, of approximately 165 MeV consistent with previous results and strong finite volume dependence below $T_c$. Clear evidence is seen for $\ua$ symmetry breaking above $T_c$ which is quantitatively explained by the measured density of near-zero modes in accordance with the dilute instanton gas approximation., Comment: 58 pages, 9 figures and 8 tables

We present results for matrix elements of $\Delta S=2$ four-fermion operators arising generically in models of new physics. These are needed to constrain such models using the measured values of $\varepsilon_K$ and $\Delta M_K$. We use lattice QCD with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered fermions on lattices generated by the MILC collaboration. We extrapolate to the continuum from three lattice spacings ranging down to $a\approx 0.045\;$fm. Total errors are $\sim 5-6%$, arising primarily from our use of one-loop matching between lattice and continuum operators. For two of the matrix elements, our results disagree significantly from those obtained using different fermion discretizations., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, added references

We report on our ongoing study of nucleon properties, the nucleon mass and the strange quark content () in particular. These calculations are done on (2+1)-flavor Domain Wall Fermion (DWF) ensembles with Iwasaki gauge action with 2 different lattice spacings (a ~ 0.08, 0.11fm) and DWF with Dislocation Suppressing Determinant Ratio(DSDR) (a ~ 0.14fm), generated by RBC/UKQCD collaborations., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, June 24-29, 2012, Cairns, Australia, PoS(Lattice2012)164

We report on recent progress in the calculation of $B_K$ using HYP-smeared improved staggered fermions on the MILC asqtad lattices. We have added measurements on fine ($a\sim 0.09 $fm) and superfine ($a\sim 0.06 $fm) ensembles at different values of the light sea quark mass ($a m_\ell$), as well as increased the statistics on some other ensembles. We find that the results on the fine lattices show a significantly stronger $am_\ell$ dependence than those on the superfine and coarse ($a\sim 0.12 $fm) lattices. We discuss different methods for accounting for these new results when doing the $a m_\ell$ and continuum extrapolations., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

We calculate the B-parameters for operators arising in theories of new physics beyond the standard model (BSM) using HYP-smeared improved staggered fermions on the MILC asqtad lattices with N_f = 2+1 flavors. We use three different lattice spacings (a ~ 0.045, 0.06 and 0.09 fm) at a fixed ratio of light to strange quarks, m_l/m_s = 1/5, to obtain the continuum results. Operator matching is done using perturbative matching at one-loop order, and results are run to 2 or 3 GeV using two-loop running in the MS-bar scheme. For the chiral and continuum extrapolations, we use SU(2) staggered chiral perturbation theory. We present preliminary results with only statistical errors., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Contribution to proceedings of 30th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2012), June 24-29, 2012; Cairns, Australia

We present a systematic study of the effectiveness of light quark mass reweighting. This method allows a single lattice QCD ensemble, generated with a specific value of the dynamical light quark mass, to be used to determine results for other, nearby light dynamical quark masses. We study two gauge field ensembles generated with 2+1 flavors of dynamical domain wall fermions with light quark masses m_l=0.02 (m_\pi=620 MeV) and m_l=0.01 (m_\pi=420 MeV). We reweight each ensemble to determine results which could be computed directly from the other and check the consistency of the reweighted results with the direct results. The large difference between the 0.02 and 0.01 light quark masses suggests that this is an aggressive application of reweighting as can be seen from fluctuations in the magnitude of the reweighting factor by four orders of magnitude. Never-the-less, a comparison of the reweighed topological charge, average plaquette, residual mass, pion mass, pion decay constant, and scalar correlator between these two ensembles shows agreement well described by the statistical errors. The issues of the effective number of configurations and finite sample size bias are discussed. An examination of the topological charge distribution implies that it is more favorable to reweight from heavier mass to lighter quark mass., Comment: 24 pages and 10 figures

We present results on both the restoration of the spontaneously broken chiral symmetry and the effective restoration of the anomalously broken U(1)_A symmetry in finite temperature QCD at zero chemical potential using lattice QCD. We employ domain wall fermions on lattices with fixed temporal extent N_\tau = 8 and spatial extent N_\sigma = 16 in a temperature range of T = 139 - 195 MeV, corresponding to lattice spacings of a \approx 0.12 - 0.18 fm. In these calculations, we include two degenerate light quarks and a strange quark at fixed pion mass m_\pi = 200 MeV. The strange quark mass is set near its physical value. We also present results from a second set of finite temperature gauge configurations at the same volume and temporal extent with slightly heavier pion mass. To study chiral symmetry restoration, we calculate the chiral condensate, the disconnected chiral susceptibility, and susceptibilities in several meson channels of different quantum numbers. To study U(1)_A restoration, we calculate spatial correlators in the scalar and pseudo-scalar channels, as well as the corresponding susceptibilities. Furthermore, we also show results for the eigenvalue spectrum of the Dirac operator as a function of temperature, which can be connected to both U(1)_A and chiral symmetry restoration via Banks-Casher relations., Comment: 80 pages, 14 figures, 4 appendices

The effect of sea quark electromagnetic charge on meson masses is investigated, and first results for full QED+QCD low-energy constants are presented. The electromagnetic charge for sea quarks is incorporated in quenched QED+full QCD lattice simulations by a reweighting method. The reweighting factor, which connects quenched and unquenched QED, is estimated using a stochastic method on 2+1 flavor dynamical domain-wall quark ensembles., Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, REVTeX 4.1, v2: published version

We present a calculation of the kaon $B$-parameter, $B_K$, using lattice QCD. We use improved staggered valence and sea fermions, the latter generated by the MILC collaboration with $N_f=2+1$ light flavors. To control discretization errors, we use four different lattice spacings ranging down to $a\approx 0.045\;$fm. The chiral and continuum extrapolations are done using SU(2) staggered chiral perturbation theory. Our final result is $\hat{B}_K = 0.727 \pm 0.004 (\text{stat}) \pm 0.038 (\text{sys})$, where the dominant systematic error is from our use of truncated (one-loop) matching factors., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, updated references, updated grant numbers

We discuss finite volume errors in our calculations of $B_K$ using improved staggered fermions on the MILC asqtad lattices. Using GPUs, we are now able to extrapolate using next-to-leading order (NLO) staggered SU(2) chiral perturbation theory including the finite volume corrections arising from pion loops. We find that the impact of FV fitting is very small, giving a 0.5% shift in the continuum limit., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Lattice 2011 proceeding

We report a possible solution to the trouble that the covariance fitting fails when the data is highly correlated and the covariance matrix has small eigenvalues. As an example, we choose the data analysis of highly correlated $B_K$ data on the basis of the SU(2) staggered chiral perturbation theory. Basically, the essence of the problem is that we do not have an accurate fitting function so that we cannot fit the highly correlated and precise data. When some eigenvalues of the covariance matrix are small, even a tiny error of fitting function can produce large chi-square and spoil the fitting procedure. We have applied a number of prescriptions available in the market such as diagonal approximation and cutoff method. In addition, we present a new method, the eigenmode shift method which fine-tunes the fitting function while keeping the covariance matrix untouched., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

We report on recent progress in the calculation of $B_K$ using HYP-smeared staggered fermions on the MILC asqtad lattices. Our main focus is on the continuum extrapolation, which is done using (up to) four different lattice spacings---$a\approx$ 0.12, 0.09, 0.06 and 0.045 fm. Since Lattice 2010, we have reduced the statistical errors on the $a\approx 0.09\;$fm lattices by a factor of $\sim 3$, and roughly doubled the size of the $a\approx0.045\;$fm ensemble. We find that these improvements have a very significant impact on the continuum extrapolation, with the $a\approx 0.12\;$fm data lying outside the range of applicability of simple functional forms. Hence we use only the three smallest lattice spacings to perform the extrapolation, finding $\hat{B}_K = B_K(\text{RGI}) = 0.725 \pm 0.004(\text{stat}) \pm 0.038(\text{sys}) $. This value is consistent with our published value from 2010 (based the three coarsest lattice spacings), but has smaller errors., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, references updated

We present recent progress in our calculation of $B_K$ with improved staggered fermions using chiral extrapolations based on SU(3) staggered chiral perturbation theory. We have accumulated significantly higher statistics on the coarse, fine, and ultrafine MILC asqtad lattices. This leads to a reduction in statistical error and an improved continuum extrapolation. Our updated result is $\hat{B}_K = B_K(\text{RGI}) = 0.737 \pm 0.003(\text{stat}) \pm 0.046 (\text{sys})$. This is consistent with the result obtained using chiral extrapolations based on SU(2) staggered chiral perturbation theory, although the total error is somewhat larger with the SU(3) analysis., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

We extend our recent unquenched ($N_f=2+1$ flavor) calculation of $B_K$ using improved staggered fermions by including in the fits the finite volume shift predicted by one-loop staggered chiral perturbation theory. The net result is to lower the result in the continuum limit by 0.6%. This shift is slightly smaller than our previous estimate of finite volume effects based on a direct comparison between different volumes. To include the finite volume effects in a reasonable time, we found it necessary to calculate them using Graphics Processing Units., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, references updated