Quenched QCD with O(a) improvement: The spectrum of light hadrons - art. no. 054506

We present a comprehensive study of the masses of pseudoscalar and vector m esons, as well as octet and decuplet baryons computed in O(a)-improved quen ched lattice QCD. Results have been obtained using the nonperturbative defi nition of the improvement coefficient c(sw), and also its estimate in tadpo le improved perturbation theory. We investigate effects of improvement on t he incidence of exceptional configurations, mass splittings, and the parame ter J. By combining the results obtained using nonperturbative and tadpole improvement in a simultaneous continuum extrapolation, we can compare our s pectral data to experiment. We confirm earlier findings by the CP-PACS Coll aboration that the quenched light hadron spectrum agrees with experiment at the 10% level.