Effects of finite volume on the KL-KS mass difference

Phenomena that involve two or more on-shell particles are particularly sensitive to the effects of finite volume and require special treatment when computed using lattice QCD. In this paper we generalize the results of Lüscher and Lellouch and Lüscher, which determine the leading-order effects of finite volume on the two-particle spectrum and two-particle decay amplitudes to determine the finite-volume effects in the second-order mixing of the K0 and K0¯ states. We extend the methods of Kim, Sachrajda, and Sharpe to provide a direct, uniform treatment of these three, related, finite-volume corrections. In particular, the leading, finite-volume corrections to the KL-KS mass difference ΔMK and the CP-violating parameter εK are determined, including the potentially large effects which can arise from the near degeneracy of the kaon mass and the energy of a finite-volume, two-pion state.