The Omega- and the strange quark mass

TL;DR

This paper reports lattice QCD calculations of the Omega- baryon mass, providing a cross-check for strange quark mass determinations and lattice scale calibration, with implications for understanding strong interaction stability.

Contribution

The study presents the first lattice QCD calculation of Omega- correlators on improved staggered quark lattices, offering a new method to verify strange quark mass estimates.

Findings

Omega- is stable under strong interactions at 140 MeV below threshold.

Results serve as a consistency check for strange quark mass and lattice scale determinations.

Potential to use Omega- mass to directly fix the strange quark mass.

Abstract

Omega- correlators have been calculated on the MILC collaboration's archive of three flavor improved staggered quark lattices. The Omega- is stable under strong interactions (140 MeV below threshold). It provides a valuable consistency check on a combination of strange quark mass and lattice scale determination from other quantities. Alternatively, the Omega- mass could be used to fix the strange quark mass, which gives a check on computations of the strange quark mass based on the kaon mass.