1212.1474 (P. A. Boyle et al.)

Emerging understanding of the ΔI = 1/2 Rule from Lattice QCD    [PDF]

P. A. Boyle, N. H. Christ, N. Garron, E. J. Goode, T. Janowski, C. Lehner, Q. Liu, A. T. Lytle, C. T. Sachrajda, A. Soni, D. Zhang, for the RBC Collaboration, for the UKQCD Collaboration

There has been much speculation as to the origin of the \Delta I = 1/2 rule (Re A_0/Re A_2 \simeq 22.5). We find that the two dominant contributions to the \Delta I=3/2, K \to \pi \pi{} correlation functions have opposite signs leading to a significant cancellation. This partial cancellation occurs in our computation of Re A_2 with physical quark masses and kinematics (where we reproduce the experimental value of A_2) and also for heavier pions at threshold. For Re A_0, although we do not have results at physical kinematics, we do have results for pions at zero-momentum with m_\pi{} \simeq 420 MeV (Re A_0/Re A_2=9.1(2.1)) and m_\pi{} \simeq 330 MeV (Re A_0/Re A_2=12.0(1.7)). The contributions which partially cancel in Re A_2 are also the largest ones in Re A_0, but now they have the same sign and so enhance this amplitude. The emerging explanation of the \Delta I=1/2 rule is a combination of the perturbative running to scales of O(2 GeV), a relative suppression of Re A_2 through the cancellation of the two dominant contributions and the corresponding enhancement of Re A_0. QCD and EWP penguin operators make only very small contributions at such scales.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1474