Decay constants of B and D mesons from improved relativistic lattice QCD with two flavors of sea quarks

Abstract

We present a calculation of the B and D meson decay constants in lattice QCD with two (Nf=2) flavors of light dynamical quarks, using an O(a)-improved Wilson action for both light and heavy quarks and a renormalization-group improved gauge action. Simulations are made at three values of lattice spacing a=0.22,0.16,0.11 fm and four values of sea quark mass in the range mPS/mV≈0.8-0.6. Our provisional estimate for the continuum values of the decay constants are fBd=208(10)(29) MeV, fBs=250(10)(35)(-0+8) MeV, fDd=225(14)(40) MeV, fDs=267(13)(48)(-0+10) MeV for Nf=2 where the statistical and systematic errors are separately listed, and the third error for fBs and fDs shows the uncertainty of the determination of the strange quark mass. We also carry out a set of quenched simulations using the same action to make a direct examination of sea quark effects. Taking the ratio of results for Nf=2 and Nf=0, we obtain fBdNf=2/fBdNf=0=1.11(6),fBsNf=2/fBsNf=0=1.14(5),fDdNf=2/fDdNf=0=1.03(6),fDsNf=2/fDsNf=0=1.07(5). They show a 10-15% increase in the Nf=2 results over those of Nf=0 for the B meson decay constants, while evidence for such a trend is statistically less clear for the D meson decay constants.