Heavy-light physics using NRQCD-staggered actions

TL;DR

This paper explores simulating light quarks with staggered fermions in lattice QCD to reduce uncertainties in B decay form factors and meson decay constants, presenting initial methods and preliminary spectrum results.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining NRQCD with staggered fermions for light quarks, addressing issues with zero modes and computational costs.

Findings

Preliminary spectrum results obtained

Methods for fitting NRQCD-staggered propagators discussed

Potential reduction in uncertainties for B decay calculations

Abstract

One leading source of uncertainty in the lattice computation of semi-leptonic form factors in B decay, and to a lesser extent B meson decay constants, comes from the extrapolation of the light quark mass to the physical up/down mass. This talk presents first explorations of simulating the light quark with staggered fermion actions, which are free of the spurious zero modes that effect Wilson-like Dirac operators and are less costly. Methods for fitting to Euclidean-time NRQCD-staggered meson propagators are discussed, and some preliminary spectrum results are presented.