# Effects of Improvement: $f_\pi$ and $m_q$

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how improvement techniques, specifically tadpole-improved actions, can effectively eliminate discretization errors in calculating the pion decay constant and quark mass in lattice QCD.

## Contribution

It demonstrates that tadpole-improved SW action successfully removes $O(a)$ effects for $f_$ and $m_q$ in light-quark physics across multiple lattice spacings.

## Key findings

- Tadpole-improved SW action reduces discretization errors in $f_$ and $m_q$.
- $O(a)$ effects are successfully removed using the improved action.
- The study covers three different lattice spacings.

## Abstract

We present a study of the effects of improvement on light-quark physics using the Fermilab formalism. The calculations were performed at three different lattice spacings, with the SW action and traditional Wilson action (both tadpole improved). We find that $O(a)$ effects for the decay constant $f_\pi$ and quark mass $m_q$ can be successfully removed using the tadpole-improved SW action in the light-quark regime.