Matching current correlators in lattice QCD to chiral perturbation theory

Abstract

Chiral perturbation theory gives direct and unambiguous predictions for the form of various two-point hadronic correlators at low momentum in terms of a finite set of couplings in a chiral Lagrangian. In this paper we study the feasibility of extracting the couplings in the chiral Lagrangian (through 1-loop order) by fitting two-point correlators computed in lattice QCD to the predicted chiral form. The correlators are computed using a pseudofermion technique yielding all-point quark propagators which allows the computation of the full four-momentum transform of the two-point functions to be obtained without sacrificing any of the physical content of the unquenched gauge configurations used. Results are given for an ensemble of dynamical configurations generated using the truncated determinant algorithm on a large coarse lattice. We also present a new analysis of finite volume effects based on a finite volume dimensional regularization scheme which preserves the power-counting rules appropriate for a chiral Lagrangian.