The running quark mass in the SF scheme and its two-loop anomalous dimension

The non-perturbatively defined running quark mass introduced by the ALPHA collaboration is based on the PCAC relation between correlation functions derived from the Schrodinger functional (SF). In order to complete its definition it remains to specify a number of parameters, including the ratio of time to spatial extent, T/L, and the angle theta which appears in the spatial boundary conditions for the quark fields. We investigate the running mass in perturbation theory and propose a choice of parameters which attains two desired properties: firstly the two-loop anomalous dimension d(1)(SF) is reasonably small. This is needed in order to ease matching with the nonperturbative computations and to achieve a precise determination of the renormalization group invariant quark mass. Secondly, to one-loop order of perturbation theory, cut-off effects in the step-scaling function are small in O(a) improved lattice QCD. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.