10:45 AM–12:33 PM, Monday, April 14, 2008
Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront (formerly Adam's Mark Hotel), - Promenade E
Sponsoring Unit:
DCOMP
Chair: Steven Gottlieb, Indiana University
10:45 AM–11:21 AM
Claude Bernard
(Washington University, St. Louis)
I describe recent advances in simulating QCD using the staggered quark action. Current results from the MILC collaboration on the physics of light pseudoscalars (pion and kaon decay constants, $V_{us}$, quark masses, and low energy constants) are presented, as are results from the Fermilab/MILC collaboration on leptonic decay constants and semileptonic form factors of the B and D systems. In addition, I detail the progress that has recently been made in putting staggered QCD simulations on a firmer theoretical footing, in particular by understanding the so-called ``rooting trick'' and the corresponding chiral effective theory.