Running Coupling Constant from Position-Space Current-Current Correlation Functions in Three-Flavor Lattice QCD.

In this Letter, we provide a determination of the coupling constant in three-flavor quantum chromodynamics (QCD), α_{s}^{MS[over ¯]}(μ), for MS[over ¯] renormalization scales μ∈(1,2)  GeV. The computation uses gauge field configuration ensembles with O(a)-improved Wilson-clover fermions generated by the Coordinated Lattice Simulations (CLS) consortium. Our approach is based on current-current correlation functions and has never been applied before in this context. We convert the results perturbatively to the QCD Λ parameter and obtain Λ_{MS[over ¯]}^{N_{f}=3}=342±17  MeV, which agrees with the world average published by the Particle Data Group and has competing precision. The latter was made possible by a unique combination of state-of-the-art CLS ensembles with very fine lattice spacings, further reduction of discretization effects from a dedicated numerical stochastic perturbation theory simulation, combining data from vector and axial-vector channels, and matching to high-order perturbation theory.