Lattice study of pion-pion scattering using Nf=2+1 Wilson improved quarks with masses down to their physical values

Abstract

We use 2HEX smeared gauge configurations generated with an ${\mathrm{N}}_{\mathrm{f}}=2+1$ clover improved Wilson action to investigate $\pi \pi$ scattering in the $\rho$ channel. The range of lattice spacings (0.054 to 0.12 fm) and space-like extents (32 and 48) allows us to extract the scattering parameters through the volume dependence of the $\pi \pi$-state energies according to Lüscher's formalism. The pion masses (134 to 300 MeV) are light enough to allow the decay of the rho and the level repulsion observed indicates that our data are sensitive to the interaction. We analyse our data with a multi-channel GEVP variational formula. Our results are in good agreement with the experimental values and consistent with a weak pion mass dependence of the $\rho \pi \pi$ coupling constant.