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Title: Pole mass of the heavy quark: Perturbation theory and beyond

Journal Article · · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)
; ; ;  [1]
  1. TH Division, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland) Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame du Lac, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 (United States) Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (United States) St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, St. Petersburg 188350 (Russian Federation) Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Novosibirsk 630090 (Russian Federation)

The key quantity of the heavy quark theory is the quark mass [ital m][sub [ital Q]]. Since quarks are unobservable one can suggest different definitions of [ital m][sub [ital Q]]. One of the most popular choices is the pole quark mass routinely used in perturbative calculations and in some analyses based on heavy quark expansions. We show that no precise definition of the pole mass can be given in the full theory once nonperturbative effects are included. Any definition of this quantity suffers from an intrinsic uncertainty of order [Lambda][sub QCD]/[ital m][sub [ital Q]]. This fact is succinctly described by the existence of an infrared renormalon generating a factorial divergence in the high-order coefficients of the [alpha][sub [ital s]] series; the corresponding singularity in the Borel plane is situated at 2[pi]/[ital b]. A peculiar feature is that this renormalon is not associated with the matrix element of a local operator. The difference [bar [Lambda]][equivalent to][ital M][sub [ital H][ital Q]]-[ital m][sub [ital Q]][sup pole] can still be defined by heavy quark effective theory, but only at the price of introducing an explicit dependence on a normalization point [mu]: [bar [Lambda]]([mu]). Fortunately the pole mass [ital m][sub [ital Q]](0) [ital per] [ital se] does not appear in calculable observable quantities.

DOE Contract Number:
AC02-83ER40105
OSTI ID:
7171977
Journal Information:
Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 50:3; ISSN 0556-2821
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English