Precision Lattice Calculation of D and Ds decay constants
arXiv:0709.4628
Abstract
We present a determination of the decay constants of the and mesons from lattice QCD, each with a total error of about 2%, approximately a factor of three better than previous calculations. We have been able to achieve this through the use of a highly improved discretization of QCD for charm quarks, coupled to gauge configurations generated by the MILC collaboration that include the full effect of sea u, d, and s quarks. We have results for a range of u/d masses down to m_s/5 and three values of the lattice spacing, which allow us to perform accurate continuum and chiral extrapolations. We fix the charm quark mass to give the experimental value of the η_c mass, and then a stringent test of our approach is the fact that we obtain correct (and accurate) values for the mass of the D and D_s mesons. We compare f_D and f_{D_s} with f_K and f_π, and using experiment determine corresponding CKM elements with good precision.
arXiv commentTo be published in the proceedings of CHARM07, Ithaca, NY, August 2007, eConf C070805