Structural properties of the lattice heavy quark effective theory

Abstract

We discuss two related aspects of the lattice version of the heavy quark effective theory (HQET). They are the effects of heavy quark modes with large momenta, near the boundary of the Brillouin zone, and the renormalization of the lattice HQET. We argue that even though large momentum modes are present, their contributions to heavy-light bound states and perturbative loop integrals are dynamically suppressed and vanish in the continuum limit. We also discuss a new feature of the renormalization of the lattice HQET not present in the continuum theory, namely that the classical velocity is finitely renormalized.