Lattice Methods for Quantum Chromodynamics

Numerical simulation of lattice-regulated QCD has become an important source of information about strong interactions. In the last few years there has been an explosion of techniques for performing ever more accurate studies on the properties of strongly interacting particles. Lattice predictions directly impact many areas of particle and nuclear physics theory and phenomenology. This book provides a thorough introduction to the specialized techniques needed to carry out numerical simulations of QCD: a description of lattice discretizations of fermions and gauge fields, methods for actually doing a simulation, descriptions of common strategies to connect simulation results to predictions of physical quantities, and a discussion of uncertainties in lattice simulations. More importantly, while lattice QCD is a well-defined field in its own right, it has many connections to continuum field theory and elementary particle physics phenomenology, which are carefully elucidated in this book.