Speaker
Description
In this study we present lattice results on the QCD $\beta$-function in the presence of a quark mass. The $\beta$-function is calculated to three loops in perturbation theory and for improved lattice actions; it is extracted from the renormalization of the coupling constant $Z_g$. The background field method is used to compute $Z_g$, where it is simply related to the background gluon field renormalization constant $Z_A$. We address quark mass effects on the background gluon propagator; its dependence on the number of colors $N_c$, the number of fermionic flavors $N_f$ and the quark mass, $m$, is shown explicitly. The perturbative results for the QCD $\beta$-function will be applied to the precise determination of the strong coupling constant, calculated by Monte Carlo simulations, removing the mass effects from the nonperturbative Green's functions.
| Topical area | Hadronic and Nuclear Spectrum and Interactions |
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