The static energy in 2+1+1-flavor QCD

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the static energy in 2+1+1-flavor QCD using lattice simulations, focusing on the effects of dynamical charm quarks and comparing results with continuum calculations.

Contribution

It provides updated lattice measurements of the static energy scales and investigates the influence of dynamical charm quarks in 2+1+1-flavor QCD.

Findings

Determined the scales r0/a, r1/a, r2/a, and the string tension from lattice data.

Compared lattice results with continuum two-loop calculations including a massive flavor.

Assessed the impact of dynamical charm quarks on the static energy.

Abstract

We report on the status of the analysis of the static energy in $2+1+1$-flavor QCD. The static energy is obtained by measuring Wilson line correlators in Coulomb gauge using the HISQ action, yielding the scales $r_{0}/a$, $r_{1}/a$, $r_{2}/a$, their ratios, and the string tension $\sigma r_{i}^{2}$. We put emphasis on the possible effects due to the dynamical charm-quark by comparing the lattice results to continuum results of the static energy with and without a massive flavor at two-loop accuracy. We employ gauge-field ensembles from the HotQCD and MILC Collaborations.