Heavy Quarks on the Lattice

Abstract

This lecture describes the treatment of heavy quarks in lattice QCD by implementing the Isgur-Wise limit. The method is briefly discussed, and some of the special features of the resulting theory are highlighted. We emphasize issues of the renormalization of the effective theory. The formulation permits a calculation of heavy quark processes even when the momentum transfers are much larger than the inverse lattice spacing. Applications include semi-leptonic heavy quark decay and scattering processes, including the computation of the nonperturbative part of the Isgur-Wise universal function.