$B_c$ spectroscopy using highly improved staggered quarks

Abstract

We report on a calculation of $B_c$ ground state and radial excitation energies, obtained from heavy-charm highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) correlators computed on MILC gauge ensembles, with lattice spacings down to $a=0.044$ fm. Using HISQ valence quarks on progressively finer lattices allows us to simulate up to the $b$-quark mass. In particular we focus on the $B_c(2S)$ energy, which we compare with O(\alpha_s)-improved non-relativistic QCD results computed on the same ensembles and recent experimental results from ATLAS.