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Title: B - and D -meson leptonic decay constants from four-flavor lattice QCD

Journal Article · · Physical Review D

Here, we calculate the leptonic decay constants of heavy-light pseudoscalar mesons with charm and bottom quarks in lattice quantum chromodynamics on four-flavor QCD gauge-field configurations with dynamical $$u$$, $$d$$, $$s$$, and $$c$$ quarks. We analyze over twenty isospin-symmetric ensembles with six lattice spacings down to $$a\approx 0.03$$~fm and several values of the light-quark mass down to the physical value $$\frac{1}{2}(m_u+m_d)$$. We employ the highly-improved staggered-quark (HISQ) action for the sea and valence quarks; on the finest lattice spacings, discretization errors are sufficiently small that we can calculate the $$B$$-meson decay constants with the HISQ action for the first time directly at the physical $$b$$-quark mass. We obtain the most precise determinations to-date of the $$D$$- and $$B$$-meson decay constants and their ratios, $$f_{D^+} = 212.7(0.6)$$~MeV, $$f_{D_s} = 249.9(0.4)$$~MeV, $$f_{D_s}/f_{D^+} = 1.1749(16)$$, $$f_{B^+} = 189.4 (1.4)$$~MeV, $$f_{B_s} = 230.7(1.3)$$~MeV, $$f_{B_s}/f_{B^+} = 1.2180(47)$$, where the errors include statistical and all systematic uncertainties. Our results for the $$B$$-meson decay constants are three times more precise than the previous best lattice-QCD calculations, and bring the QCD errors in the Standard-Model predictions for the rare leptonic decays $$\overline{\mathcal{B}}(B_s \to \mu^+\mu^-) = 3.64(11) \times 10^{-9}$$, $$\overline{\mathcal{B}}(B^0 \to \mu^+\mu^-) = 1.00(3) \times 10^{-11}$$, and $$\overline{\mathcal{B}}(B^0 \to \mu^+\mu^-)/\overline{\mathcal{B}}(B_s \to \mu^+\mu^-) = 0.00264(8)$$ to well below other sources of uncertainty. As a byproduct of our analysis, we also update our previously published results for the light-quark-mass ratios and the scale-setting quantities $$f_{p4s}$$, $$M_{p4s}$$, and $$R_{p4s}$$. We obtain the most precise lattice-QCD determination to date of the ratio $$f_{K^+}/f_{\pi^+} = 1.1950(^{+16}_{-23})$$~MeV.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
Fermilab Lattice and MILC Collaborations
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357; FG02-91ER40628; FC02-12ER41879; SC0010120; FG02-91ER40661; FG02-13ER42001; SC0015655; SC0010005; FG02-13ER41976; SC0009998; SC0012704; AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1479610
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1423226
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1712.09262; FERMILAB-PUB-17/491-T; PRVDAQ; 074512
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Journal Name: Physical Review D Vol. 98 Journal Issue: 7; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 156 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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