Hadron mass extraction from lattice QCD

Abstract

The extraction of quantities from lattice QCD calculations at realistic quark masses is of considerable importance. Whilst physical quark masses are some way off, the recent advances in the calculation of hadron masses within full QCD now invite improved extrapolation methods. We show that, provided the correct chiral behaviour of QCD is respected in the extrapolation to realistic quark masses, one can indeed obtain a fairly reliable determination of masses, the sigma commutator and the J parameter. We summarise these findings by presenting the nonanalytic behaviour of nucleon and rho masses in the standard Edinburgh plot.