A Lattice Qcd Study Of Nucleon Structure With Physical Quark Masses

The formalism of Quantum Chromodynamics on the lattice (or Lattice QCD) allows to perform ab-initio non-perturbative studies of strong-interaction driven processes, as it provides both a covariant regularisation of the theory of QCD and a natural framework for numerical computations. In this work, after a review of the main features of QCD and a step-by-step presentation of our discretization of QCD on a lattice, we undertake detailed studies of two problems of hadronic physics: the phenomenon of resonant scattering and the structure of the nucleon. The lattice calculations are performed with the Budapest-Marseille-Wuppertal Collaboration's 2+1-flavour gauge configurations, which give access to a wide range of lattice spacings, volumes and quarks masses, thereby allowing to study the sensibility of our results on these parameters, and to perform a complete continuum extrapolation. These configurations include dynamical quarks, and use a clover-improved Wilson QCD action. To investigate the scattering of particles on the lattice, we set up a Lüscher analysis for the emblematic case of pion-pion scattering in the channel of the rho meson resonance. We analyse our data with a variational generalized eigenvalue method, and give an in-depth calculation of the scattering phase-shifts and the corresponding resonance parameters, with a full control of the systematic errors. Our results provide an important step for lattice studies of scattering states, as they are the first to be performed at the physical pion mass, where one can see the actual decay of the rho into two pions. The obtained rho meson parameters are in good agreement with the experimental values, and consistent with a weak pion mass dependence of the coupling between the rho and two pions. As for our probe of the structure of the nucleon, we present a complete extraction of the electroweak isovector form factors, with a comprehensive study of the electric charge squared radius and of the axial charge. Our analysis also feature data at the physical pion mass, which turns out to be crucial in order to perform safe extrapolations to the physical point, as the chiral perturbation theory predicts violent variations of these quantities near the massless-quarks point. Our calculation includes source and sink projections onto the nucleon state, as well as a combined fit method between the two-point and three-point correlation functions to control the contamination of our data by excited states. Although one would need more data to perform a high-accuracy determination of the nucleon radius and axial charge at the physical point with a relevant estimation of the systematic errors, the results we obtain are in good agreement with the experiment and suggest that the excited-state effects are under control. Our analysis also highlights that gauge configurations ensembles near the physical pion mass and with large volumes must be used in order to extract accurate information about the nucleon structure from lattice calculations.

It is emphasized in the 2015 NSAC Long Range Plan [1] that "understanding the structure of hadrons in terms of QCD's quarks and gluons is one of the central goals of modern nuclear physics." Over the last three decades, lattice QCD has developed into a powerful tool for ab initio calculations of strong-interaction physics. Up until now, it is the only theoretical approach to solving QCD with controlled statistical and systematic errors. Since 1985, we have proposed and carried out first-principles calculations of nucleon structure and hadron spectroscopy using lattice QCD which entails both algorithmic development and large scale computer simulation. We started out by calculating the nucleon form factors − electromagnetic [2], axial-vector [3], ? NN [4], and scalar [5] form factors, the quark spin contribution [6] to the proton spin, the strangeness magnetic moment [7], the quark orbital angular momentum [8], the quark momentum fraction [9], and the quark and glue decomposition of the proton momentum and angular momentum [10]. These first round of calculations were done with Wilson fermions in the q̀uenched' approximation where the dynamical effects of the quarks in the sea are not taken into account in the Monte Carlo simulation to generate the background gauge configurations. Beginning in 2000, we have started implementing the overlap fermion formulation into the spectroscopy and structure calculations [11, 12]. This is mainly because the overlap fermion honors chiral symmetry as in the continuum. It is going to be more and more important to take the symmetry into account as the simulations move closer to the physical point where the u and d quark masses are as light as a few MeV only. We began with lattices which have quark masses in the sea corresponding to a pion mass at ̃300 MeV and obtained the strange form factors [13], charm and strange quark masses, the charmonium spectrum and the Ds meson decay constant fDs [14], the strangeness and charmness [15], the meson mass decomposition [16] and the strange quark spin from the anomalous Ward identity [17]. Recently, we have started to include multiple lattices with different lattice spacings and different volumes including large lattices at the physical pion mass point. We are getting quite close to being able to calculate the hadron structure at the physical point and to do the continuum and large volume extrapolations which is our ultimate aim. We have now finished several projects which have included these systematic corrections. They include the leptonic decay width of the [18], the N sigma and strange sigma terms [19], and the strange quark magnetic moment [20]. Over the years, we have also studied hadron spectroscopy with lattice calculations and in phenomenology. These include Roper resonance [21, 22], pentaquark state [23], charmonium spectrum [24, 14], glueballs [25, 26, 27, 28], scalar mesons a0(1450) and (600) [29] and other scalar mesons [30], and the 1−+ meson [31]. In addition, we have employed the canonical approach to explore the first order phase transition and the critical point at finite density and finite temperature [32, 33]. We have also discovered a new parton degree of freedom − the connected sea partons, from the path-integral formulation of the hadronic tensor [34, 35] which explains the experimentally observed Gottfried sum rule violation [34]. Combining experimental result on the strange parton distribution, the CT10 global fitting results of the total u and d anti-partons and the lattice result of the ratio of the momentum fraction of the strange vs that of u or d in the disconnected insertion, we have shown that the connected sea partons can be isolated [36]. In this final technical report, we shall present a few representative highlights that have been achieved in the project.

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) describes the interactions between elementary quarks and gluons as they compose the nucleons at the heart of atomic structure. The interactions give rise to complexity that can only be examined via numerical simulations on supercomputers. This work provides an introduction to the numerical simulations of lattice QCD and establishes new formalisms relevant to understanding the structure of nucleons and their excited states. The research opens with an examination of the non-trivial QCD vacuum and the emergence of “centre domains.” The focus then turns to establishing a novel Parity-Expanded Variational Analysis (PEVA) technique solving the important problem of isolating baryon states moving with finite momentum. This seminal work provides a foundation for future calculations of baryon properties. Implementation of the PEVA formalism discloses important systematic errors in conventional calculations and reveals the structure of nucleon excited states from the first principles of QCD for the first time.

Lattice QCD allows us to study the structure of hadrons from first-principles calculations of quantum chromodynamics. We present calculations that shed light on the behavior of quarks inside hadrons in both qualitative and quantitative ways. The first is a study of diquarks. We bind two quarks in a baryon with a static quark and compute the simultaneous two-quark density, including corrections for periodic boundary conditions. Defining a correlation function to isolate the intrinsic correlations of the diquark, we find that away from the immediate vicinity of the static quark, the diquark has a consistent shape, with much stronger correlations seen in the scalar diquark than in the axial-vector diquark. We present results at pion masses 293 and 940 MeV and discuss the dependence on the pion mass. The second set of calculations is a more quantitative study that covers a wide range of (mainly isovector) nucleon observables, including the Dirac and Pauli radii, the magnetic moment, the axial charge, and the average quark momentum fraction. Two major advances over previous calculations are the use of a near-physical pion mass, which nearly eliminates the uncertainty associated with extrapolation to the physical point, and the control over systematic errors caused by excited states, which is a significant focus of this thesis. Using pion masses as low as 149 MeV and spatial box sizes as large as 5.6 fm, we show the importance of good control over excited states for obtaining successful postdictions -- which we achieve for several quantities -- and we identify a remaining source of systematic error that is likely responsible for disagreement with experiment in the axial sector. We then use this understanding of systematics to make predictions for observables that have not been measured experimentally.

With ever increasing computational resources and improvements in algorithms, new opportunities are emerging for lattice gauge theory to address key questions in strongly interacting systems, such as nuclear matter. Calculations today use dynamical gauge-field ensembles with degenerate light up/down quarks and the strange quark and it is possible now to consider including charm-quark degrees of freedom in the QCD vacuum. Pion masses and other sources of systematic error, such as finite-volume and discretization effects, are beginning to be quantified systematically. Altogether, an era of precision calculation has begun and many new observables will be calculated at the new computational facilities. The aim of this set of lectures is to provide graduate students with a grounding in the application of lattice gauge theory methods to strongly interacting systems and in particular to nuclear physics. A wide variety of topics are covered, including continuum field theory, lattice discretizations, hadron spectroscopy and structure, many-body systems, together with more topical lectures in nuclear physics aimed a providing a broad phenomenological background. Exercises to encourage hands-on experience with parallel computing and data analysis are included.

Lattice gauge theory is a valuable tool for understanding how properties of the nucleon arise from the fundamental interactions of QCD. Numerical computations on the lattice can be used not only for first principles calculations of experimentally accessible quantities, but also for calculations of quantities that are not (yet) known from experiment. This thesis presents two lattice studies of the quark substructure of nucleons. The first study used overlaps calculated on the lattice to evaluate the goodness of trial nucleon sources. A variational study was performed to find the trial source that best approximated the true nucleon ground state. In this exploratory work with relatively simple trial sources on quenched lattices, we obtained overlaps as high as 80%. The second study was performed using domain wall valence fermions on Asqtad improved staggered lattices provided by the MILC collaboration, with pion masses as low as 290 MeV. We compute nucleon matrix elements of local quark operators: (F', S'l@P(0) F{Il Dt12 ... i D 0 (0)P, S), where F" E {y", -y"-y, -io*}. These operators are parameterized by generalized form factors, which in the infinite momentum frame can be unambiguously interpreted in terms of Fourier transforms of the transverse spatial distributions of quarks in a nucleon. By calculating the local operators at many different values of nucleon momentum, we extract a complete set of generalized form factors for the lowest two moments of the vector, axial and tensor operators. From the form factors, we compute a variety of quantities characterizing the internal structure of the nucleon. Finally, we explore chiral extrapolations of the lattice results to the physical pion mass.

We present lattice QCD numerical calculations of hadronic structure functions and form factors from full-QCD lattices, with a chirally symmetric fermion action, domain-wall fermions, for the sea and valence quarks. The lattice spacing is about 0.12 fm with physical volume approximately (2 fm)3 for RBC 2-flavor ensembles and (3 fm)3 for RBC/UKQCD 2+1-flavor dynamical ones. The lightest sea quark mass is about 1/2 the strange quark mass for the former ensembles and 1/4 for the latter ones. Our calculations include: isovector vector- and axial-charge form factors and the first few moments of the polarized and unpolarized structure functions of the nucleon. Nonperturbative renormalization in RI/MOM scheme is applied.

We explore the possibility of extrapolating state of the art lattice QCD calculations of nucleon form factors to the physical regime. We nd that the lattice results can be reproduced using the Light Front Cloudy Bag Model by letting its parameters be analytic functions of the quark mass. We then use the model to extend the lattice calculations to large values of Q2 of interest to current and planned experiments. These functions are also used to dene extrapolations to the physical value of the pion mass, thereby allowing us to study how the predicted zero in GE(Q2)/GM(Q2) varies as a function of quark mass.

We explore the possibility of extrapolating state of the art lattice QCD calculations of nucleon form factors to the physical regime. We find that the lattice results can be reproduced using the Light Front Cloudy Bag Model and the Extended Gari-Krmpelmann Model by letting their parameters be analytic functions of the quark mass. We then use the models to extend the lattice calculations to large values of Q2 of interest to current and planned experiments. These functions for the first model are also used to define extrapolations to the physical value of the pion mass, thereby allowing us to study how the predicted zero in G{sub E}(Q2)/G{sub M}(Q2) varies as a function of quark mass.