Asymptotic lattice spacing dependence of spectral quantities in lattice QCD with Wilson or Ginsparg-Wilson quarks

Abstract

One major systematic uncertainty of lattice QCD results is due to the continuum extrapolation. For an asymptotically free theory like QCD one finds corrections of the form $a^{n_\mathrm{min}}[2b_0\bar{g}^2(1/a)]^{\hat{\Gamma}_i}$ with lattice spacing $a$, where $\bar{g}(1/a)$ is the running coupling at renormalisation scale $\mu=1/a$ and $n_\mathrm{min}$ is a positive integer. $\hat{\Gamma}_i$ can take any positive or negative value, but is computable by next-to-leading order perturbation theory. It will impact convergence towards the continuum limit. Balog, Niedermayer and Weisz first pointed out how problematic such corrections can be in their seminal work for the O(3) model. Based on Symanzik Effective Theory for lattice QCD with Ginsparg-Wilson and Wilson quarks, various powers $\hat{\Gamma}_i$ are found due to lattice artifacts from the discretised lattice action. Those powers are sufficient when describing spectral quantities, while non-spectral quantities will require additional powers originating from corrections to each of the discretised local fields involved. This new input should be incorporated into ans\"atze used for the continuum extrapolation.