Lattice QCD - A guide for people who want results
Abstract
Description
Lattice QCD was invented thirty years ago but only in the last few years has it finally fulfilled its promise as a precision tool for calculations in hadron physics. This review will cover the fundamentals of discretising QCD onto a space-time lattice and how to reduce the errors associated with the discretisation. This 'improvement' is the key that has made the enormous computational task of a lattice QCD calculation tractable and enabled us to reach the recent milestone of precision calculations of simple 'gold-plated' hadron masses. Accurate decay matrix elements, such as those for leptonic and semileptonic decays of heavy mesons needed by the B factory experimental programme, are now within sight. I will describe what goes into such calculations and what the future prospects and limitations are.
Lectures at 58th Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics, Hadron physics, August 2004
Lectures at 58th Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics, Hadron physics, August 2004