Two-loop computation of a finite volume running coupling on the lattice

Abstract

In pure SU(2) gauge theory we compute the two-loop coefficient in the relation between the lattice bare coupling and the running coupling defined through the Schroedinger functional. This result is required to relate the latter to the MSbar-coupling in our programme to compute alpha_s. In addition it allows us to implement O(a) improvement of the Schroedinger functional to two-loop order. The two-loop beta-function is verified in a perturbative computation on the lattice, and the behavior of expansions in the standard and in the Parisi-improved bare couplings are investigated beyond one loop.

Comments: 3 pages, latex, no figures, needs espcrc2.sty, contribution LAT94 equ. (8) had missed the term + m_1^2 on the r.h.s