This paper is a review of heavy quarks in lattice gauge theory, focusing on methodology. It includes a status report on some of the calculations that are relevant to heavy-quark spectroscopy and to flavor physics.
MOTIVATIONThe study of flavor-and CP -violation is a vital part of particle physics [1]. Often lattice QCD is needed to connect experimental measurements to the fundamental couplings of quarks, which, in the Standard Model, are elements of the CabibboKobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix. Usually the test of CKM is drawn as a set of constraints on the apex of the so-called unitarity triangle (UT). The Particle Data Group's version [2] is shown in Fig. 1. Apart from the wedge sin 2β, theoretical uncertainties dominate, and everyone wonders whether they are reducible and, if so, reliable. Indeed, as Martin Beneke [3] put it at Lattice 2001, the "Standard UT fit is now entirely in the hands of Lattice QCD (up to, perhaps, |V ub |)."The needed hadronic matrix elements are among the simplest in lattice QCD, so we can hope to carry out a full and reliable error analysis. Two criteria are key: First, there must be one stable (or very narrow) hadron in the initial state and one or none in the final state; second, the chiral extrapolation must be under control. Such quantities can be called gold-plated, to remind us that they are the most robust. (They are conceptually and technically much simpler than non-leptonic decays, or resonance masses and widths.) Moreover, realistic, unquenched simulations for gold-plated quantities now seem to be feasible [4,5].Much is at stake. Fits to the CKM matrix are often described as over-constraining the Standard Model, but they are really a test. With (reliable) error bars of a few percent one can imagine a picture like Fig. 2. The base, the angle γ, and the left side come from B (and other) decays that proceed at the tree level of the electroweak interactions. They can be considered to measure the UT's apex. The side labeled "V * td V tb " is obtained from the frequency of B 0 -B 0 mixing; the angle β through the interference of decay with and without mixing. Standard mixing proceeds through box diagrams, so non-Standard processes could compete. Thus, this side tests the CKM theory.