Meson Decay Constant Predictions of the Valence Approximation to Lattice QCD

Abstract

We evaluate $f_{\pi }/m_{\rho }$, $f_K/m_{\rho }$, $1/f_{\rho }$, and $m_{\varphi }/(f_{\varphi }{m}_{\rho })$, extrapolated to physical quark mass, zero lattice spacing and infinite volume, for lattice QCD with Wilson quarks in the valence (quenched) approximation. The predicted $m_{\varphi }/(f_{\varphi }{m}_{\rho })$ differs from experiment by less than its statistical uncertainty of approximately 15\%. The other three constants are 10\% to 20\% below experiment, equivalent to between one and two times the corresponding statistical uncertainties.

Comments: 14 pages of Latex using REVTEX macros, included, plus Postscript for 2 figures, also included. (corrected two typos, one somewhat confusing)