Photon mass term as an IR regularization for QCD+QED on the lattice

Abstract

Inclusion of QED in lattice QCD calculations can lead to power-law volume artifacts as a consequence of the long-range nature of the interaction. Such artifacts must be removed by extrapolation in order to attain reliable infinite volume estimates of observables and quantities derived from them. As an alternative to this methodology, we consider the use of a photon mass term as an infrared regulator for QCD+QED, and explore the viability of its use in determining hadron mass shifts and splittings.