Hadron masses and matrix elements from the QCD Schr"odinger functional

Abstract

We explain how masses and matrix elements can be computed in lattice QCD using Schr"odinger functional boundary conditions. Numerical results in the quenched approximation demonstrate that good precision can be achieved. For a statistical sample of the same size, our hadron masses have a precision similar to what is achieved with standard methods, but for the computation of matrix elements such as the pseudoscalar decay constant the Schr"odinger functional technique turns out to be much more efficient than the known alternatives.