We perform a lattice QCD calculation of the hadronic light-by-light scattering amplitude in a broad kinematical range. At forward kinematics, the results are compared to a phenomenological analysis based on dispersive sum rules for light-by-light scattering. The size of the pion pole contribution is investigated for momenta of typical hadronic size. The presented numerical methods can be used to compute the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Our calculations are carried out in two-flavor QCD with the pion mass in the range of 270 to 450MeV, and contain so far only the diagrams with fully connected quark lines.
The dispersive approach to QCD is briefly overviewed and its application to the assessment of hadronic contributions to electroweak observables is discussed.
I suggest a new approach to the determination of the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ in lattice QCD. It is based on properties of the Mellin transform of the hadronic spectral function and their relation to the HVP self energy in the Euclidean. I show how $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ is very well approximated by a few moments associated to this Mellin transform and how these moments can be evaluated in lattice QCD, providing thus a series of tests when compared with the corresponding determinations using experimental data.
After a brief self-contained introduction to the muon anomalous magnetic moment, (g-2), we review the status of lattice calculations of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution and present first results from lattice QCD for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution. The signal for the latter is consistent with model calculations. While encouraging, the statistical error is large and systematic errors are mostly uncontrolled. The method is applied first to pure QED as a check.
The dispersive approach to quantum chromodynamics is applied to the study of the hadronic vacuum polarization function and associated quantities. This approach merges the intrinsically nonperturbative constraints, which originate in the kinematic restrictions on the respective physical processes, with corresponding perturbative input. The obtained hadronic vacuum polarization function agrees with pertinent lattice simulation data. The evaluated hadronic contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment and to the shift of the electromagnetic fine structure constant conform with recent assess…
For reliable comparison of the standard model prediction to the muon g-2 with its experimental value, the hadronic light-by-light scattering (HLbL) contribution must be calculated by lattice QCD simulation. HLbL contribution has many types of disconnected-type diagrams. Here, we start with recalling the point that must be taken care of in every method to calculate them by lattice QCD, and present one concrete method called nonperturbative QED method.
We report preliminary results for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Several ensembles using 2+1 flavors of Möbius domain-wall fermions, generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaborations, are employed to take the continuum and infinite volume limits of finite volume lattice QED+QCD. We find $a_μ^{\rm HLbL} = (7.41\pm6.33)\times 10^{-10}$
We compute the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon $g-2$ from the up, down, and strange-quark sector directly using lattice QCD. Our calculation features evaluations of all possible Wick-contractions of the relevant hadronic four-point function and incorporates several different pion masses, volumes, and lattice-spacings. We obtain a value of $a_μ^{\text{Hlbl}} = 106.8(14.7) \times 10^{-11}$ (adding statistical and systematic errors in quadrature), which is consistent with current phenomenological estimates and a previous lattice determination. It now appears conclusive…
The nonperturbative approach to soft high-energy hadron-hadron scattering, based on the analytic continuation of Wilson-loop correlation functions from Euclidean to Minkowskian theory, allows to investigate the asymptotic energy dependence of hadron-hadron total cross sections in lattice QCD. In this paper we will show, using best fits of the lattice data with proper functional forms satisfying unitarity and other physical constraints, how indications emerge in favor of a universal asymptotic high-energy behavior of the kind B log^2 s for hadronic total cross sections.
The form factor that yields the light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment is computed in lattice QCD+QED and QED. A non-perturbative treatment of QED is used and is checked against perturbation theory. The hadronic contribution is calculated for unphysical quark and muon masses, and only the diagram with a single quark loop is computed. Statistically significant signals are obtained. Initial results appear promising, and the prospect for a complete calculation with physical masses and controlled errors is discussed.
We show that the matrix element of a local quark-gluon operator in the photon state, $<γ(kλ)|\hat O| γ(kλ)>$, can be calculated in lattice QCD. The result is generalized to other quantities involving space-like photons, including the transition form factor $γγ^*\to π^0$ and the virtual-photon-nucleon Compton amplitude $<γ^*N |γ^*N>$ which can be used to define the generalized Drell-Hearn-Gerasimov and Bjorken sum rules.
We calculate the hadronic coupling constants $g_{NNπ}$ and $g_{ρππ}$ in QCD, including dynamical quarks in the framework of staggered fermions in the lattice approach. For the nucleon--pion coupling we obtain $g_{NNπ} = 13.8 \pm 5.8$, to be compared with the experimental value $13.13 \pm 0.07$. The $ρππ$ coupling has been analysed for two different sets of operators with the averaged result $g_{ρππ} = 4.2 \pm 1.9$ which is to be compared with the experimental value $6.06 \pm 0.01$.
The hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon g-2 is the most troublesome component of its theoretical prediction; (1) it cannot be determined from the other measurable quantities, (2) the dimensional argument and the estimation based on hadronic models imply that the magnitude of this contribution may be comparable to the discrepancy between the standard model prediction and the experimental value. The direct approach to evaluate the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution requires the evaluation of the correlation function of {\it four} hadronic electromagnetic curr…
The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $g_μ-2$, is one of the most promising observables to identify hints for physics beyond the Standard Model. QCD contributions are currently responsible for the largest fraction of the overall theoretical uncertainty in $g_μ-2$. The possibility to determine these hadronic contributions from first principles through lattice QCD calculations has triggered a number of recent studies. Recent proposals to improve the accuracy of lattice determinations are reported. We present an update of our studies of the leading-order hadronic contribution to $g_μ-2$ with…
We report the first result for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment with all errors systematically controlled. Several ensembles using 2+1 flavors of physical mass Möbius domain-wall fermions, generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaborations, are employed to take the continuum and infinite volume limits of finite volume lattice QED+QCD. We find $a_μ^{\rm HLbL} = 7.87(3.06)_\text{stat}(1.77)_\text{sys}\times 10^{-10}$. Our value is consistent with previous model results and leaves little room for this notoriously difficult hadronic contribution to e…
I discuss recent results of the NPLQCD Collaboration regarding the calculation of hadronic interactions with lattice QCD. A particular emphasis will be spent on pi-pi scattering and other meson interactions.
I discuss how masses and widths of hadron resonances are extracted from lattice QCD. Recent lattice results on the light, strange and charm meson resonances are reviewed. Their properties are revealed by simulating the corresponding scattering channels pi-pi, K-pi and D-pi on the lattice and extracting the scattering phase shifts. In particular we address the resonances rho, D0*(2400), D1(2430), K*, kappa and K0*(1430).
We will show how a universal and Froissart-like (i.e., of the kind "B log^2 s") hadron-hadron total cross section can emerge in QCD asymptotically at high energy, finding indications for this behavior from the lattice. The functional integral approach provides the natural setting for achieving this result, since it encodes the energy dependence of hadronic scattering amplitudes in a single elementary object, i.e., a proper correlation function of two Wilson loops.
The phenomenology of leptonic decays of quarkonia holds many interesting features: for instance, it can establish constraints on scenarios beyond the Standard Model with the Higgs sector enriched by a light CP-odd state. In the following paper, we report on a two-flavor lattice QCD study of the $η_c$ and $J/ψ$ decay constants, $f_{η_c}$ and $f_{Jψ}$. We also examine some properties of the first radial excitation $η_c(2S)$ and $ψ(2S)$.
By means of a nonperturbative approach to soft high-energy hadron-hadron scattering, based on the analytic continuation of Wilson-loop correlation functions from Euclidean to Minkowskian theory, we shall investigate the asymptotic energy dependence of hadron-hadron total cross sections in lattice QCD: we will show, using best fits of the lattice data with proper functional forms satisfying unitarity and other physical constraints, how indications emerge in favor of a universal asymptotic high-energy behavior of the kind $B \log^2 s$ for hadronic total cross sections.
We discuss a new technique to evaluate integrals of QCD Green's functions in the Euclidean based on their Mellin-Barnes representation. We present as a first application the evaluation of the lowest order Hadronic Vacuum Polarization (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $\frac{1}{2}(g_μ-2)_{\rm\tiny HVP}\equiv a_μ^{\rm HVP}$. It is shown that with a precise determination of the slope and curvature of the HVP function at the origin from lattice QCD (LQCD), one can already obtain a result for $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ which may serve as a test of the determinations based on expe…
The experimental value of g-2 of the muon is larger by $4.2 σ$ than the Standard Model prediction based on the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution (HVP) determined from the measured R-ratio, $σ(e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \! \mathit{hadrons})/σ(e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \!μ^+ μ^-)$; the HVP calculated in lattice QCD also significantly exceeds the measured R-ratio value. We show here that these discrepancies can be explained by an undetected contribution to $e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \! \mathit{hadrons}$ as could arise from production of neutral, long-lived hadrons which have not previously been identi…
We review the potential method in lattice QCD, which has recently been proposed to extract nucleon-nucleon interactions via numerical simulations. We focus on the methodology of this approach by emphasizing the strategy of the potential method, the theoretical foundation behind it, and special numerical techniques. We compare the potential method with the standard finite volume method in lattice QCD, in order to make pros and cons of the approach clear. We also present several numerical results for the nucleon-nucleon potentials.
We compute the vacuum polarisation on the lattice in quenched QCD using non-perturbatively improved Wilson fermions. Above Q^2 of about 2 GeV^2 the results are very close to the predictions of perturbative QCD. Below this scale we see signs of non-perturbative effects which we can describe by the use of dispersion relations. We use our results to estimate the light quark contribution to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment. We find the result 446(23) x 10^{-10}, where the error only includes statistical uncertainties. Finally we make some comments on the applicability of the Operator Product E…
ALEPH/OPAL data on the V-A spectral functions from hadronic tau decays are used in connection with a set of Laplace transform sum rules (LSR) for fixing the size of the QCD vacuum condensates up to dimension 18. Our results favour the ones from large-N_c QCD within the Minimal Hadronic Approximation (MHA) and show a violation of about a factor 2-5 of the vacuum saturation estimate of the dimension-six to -ten condensates. We scrutinize the different determinations of the QCD vacuum condensates using tau-decays data. After revisiting some of the existing results, we present coherent values of t…
We report on calculations of the hadronic coupling constants $g_{ρππ}$ and $g_{nnπ}$ based on lattice QCD with four flavors of dynamical staggered fermions. By computing 2--point and 3--point Green's functions we have been able to determine these coupling constants ab initio from QCD; the results are compatible with the experimental values.
We report progress on calculating the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from the disconnected hadronic diagrams with light and strange quarks and the valence QED contribution to the connected diagrams. The lattice QCD calculations use the highly-improved staggered quark (HISQ) formulation. The gauge configurations were generated by the MILC Collaboration with four flavors of HISQ sea quarks with physical sea-quark masses.
We present an overview of recent efforts to calculate the interactions among hadrons using lattice QCD. After outlining the techniques that are used to extract scattering parameters, we detail the latest calculations of meson-meson scattering, baryon-baryon scattering and multi-meson systems obtained with domain-wall valence quarks on the staggered MILC lattices by the NPLQCD collaboration. Estimates of the computational resources required to achieve precision results in the baryon sector are presented.
An adiabatic approximation is used to derive the binding potential between two heavy-light mesons in quenched SU(2)-colour lattice QCD. Analysis of the meson-meson system shows that the potential is attractive at short- and medium-range. The numerical data is consistent with the Yukawa model of pion exchange
There are generally two types of Wick contractions in lattice QCD calculations of a correlation function --- connected and disconnected ones. The disconnected contribution is difficult to calculate and noisy, thus it is often neglected. In the context of studying tetraquarks, hadronic molecules and meson-meson scattering, we show that whenever there are both connected and singly disconnected contractions, the singly disconnected part gives the leading order contribution, and thus should never be neglected. As an explicit example, we show that information about the scalar mesons sigma, f0(980),…
The spectrum of hadronic resonances continually receives updates from the Particle Data Group, which lists every state with a status representing how established the state is. Moreover, the existence of additional states is predicted by relativistic quark models. It has been suggested that further states might need to be included in the hadronic spectrum in order to improve the agreement between the hadron resonance gas model predictions and lattice QCD data. Such an inclusion would also affect the results of many areas of heavy-ion collision physics that make use of hadronic degrees of freedo…
The Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) coupling, $α_s$, is not a physical observable of the theory since it depends on conventions related to the renormalization procedure. We introduce a definition of the QCD coupling, denoted by $\hatα_s$, whose running is explicitly renormalization scheme invariant. The scheme dependence of the new coupling $\hatα_s$ is parameterized by a single parameter $C$, related to transformations of the QCD scale $Λ$. It is demonstrated that appropriate choices of $C$ can lead to substantial improvements in the perturbative prediction of physical observables. As phenomenol…
We calculate the leading order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment using twisted mass lattice QCD. The pion masses range from 330 MeV to 650 MeV. We use two lattice spacings, a=0.079 fm and 0.063 fm, to study lattice artifacts. Finite-size effects are studied for two values of the pion mass, and we calculate the disconnected contributions for four ensembles. Particular attention is paid to the dominant contributions of the vector mesons, both phenomenologically and from our lattice calculation.
QCD spectral functions of hadrons in the pseudo-scalar and vector channels are extracted from lattice Monte Carlo data of the imaginary time Green's functions. The maximum entropy method works well for this purpose, and the resonance and continuum structures in the spectra are obtained in addition to the ground state peaks.
Fluctuations of conserved charges allow to study the chemical composition of hadronic matter. A comparison between lattice simulations and the Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model suggested the existence of missing strange resonances. To clarify this issue we calculate the partial pressures of mesons and baryons with different strangeness quantum numbers using lattice simulations in the confined phase of QCD. In order to make this calculation feasible, we perform simulations at imaginary strangeness chemical potentials. We systematically study the effect of different hadronic spectra on thermodyna…
The leading order hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic moment anomaly, $a^{HAD}_μ$, is determined entirely in the framework of QCD. The result in the light-quark sector, in units of $10^{-10}$, is $a^{HAD}_μ|_{uds} =686 \pm 26$, and in the heavy-quark sector $a^{HAD}_μ|_{c} =14.4 \pm 0.1$, and $a^{HAD}_μ|_{b} =0.29 \pm 0.01$, resulting in $a^{HAD}_μ= 701 \pm 26$. The main uncertainty is due to the current lattice QCD value of the first and second derivative of the electromagnetic current correlator at the origin. Expected improvement in the precision of these derivatives may render this …
Neutral-meson mixing is loop suppressed in the Standard Model, leading to the possibility of enhanced sensitivity to new physics. The uncertainty in Standard Model predictions for $B$-meson oscillation frequencies is dominated by theoretical uncertainties within the short-distance $B$-meson hadronic matrix elements, motivating the need for improved precision. In $D$-meson mixing, the Standard Model short-distance contributions are further suppressed by the GIM mechanism allowing for the possibility of large new physics enhancements. A first-principle determination of the $D$-meson short-distan…
The quark-connected leading-order hadronic contributions to the running of the electromagnetic fine structure constant, $α_{\rm QED}$, and the weak mixing angle, $θ_W$, are determined by a four-flavour lattice QCD computation with twisted mass fermions. Full agreement of the results with a phenomenological analysis is observed with an even comparable statistical uncertainty. We show that the uncertainty of the lattice calculation is dominated by systematic effects which then leads to significantly larger errors than obtained by the phenomenological analysis.
We motivate lattice QCD studies of the parity-violating pion-nucleon coupling constant and extend flavor-conserving hadronic parity-violation from QCD to partially-quenched QCD. The parity-violating pion-nucleon coupling and the anapole form factor (and moment) of the proton are computed to one-loop order in the partially-quenched chiral expansion. For the parity-violating pion-nucleon interaction, we include the contributions from total derivative operators necessary to match the kinematics that will be used in lattice simulations.
A large body of evidence from lattice calculations indicates that instantons play a major role in the physics of light hadrons. This evidence is summarized, and recent results concerning the instanton content of the SU(3) vacuum, instanton contributions to the static potential, and a new class of instanton solutions at finite temperature are reviewed.
The determination of the pattern of hadronic resonances as predicted by Quantum Chromodynamics requires the use of non-perturbative techniques. Lattice QCD has emerged as the dominant tool for such calculations, and has produced many QCD predictions which can be directly compared to experiment. The concepts underlying lattice QCD are outlined, methods for calculating excited states are discussed, and results from an exploratory Nucleon and Delta baryon spectrum study are presented.
We investigate the coupling constant $g_{σππ}$ for the hadronic decay $σ\toππ$ only using the relevant three-point function, which is evaluated by the moving-wall source technique with a pretty good noise-to-signal ratio. This simulation is carried out on a $40^3\times96$ MILC gauge configuration with $N_f=2+1$ flavor of the "Asqtad" improved staggered dynamical sea quarks at the lattice spacing $a \approx 0.09$ fm. Our estimated value for this given MILC fine lattice gauge ensemble $g_{σππ}=2.71(42)$ GeV.
We calculate the leading-order hadronic correction to the anomalous magnetic moments of each of the three charged leptons in the Standard Model: the electron, muon and tau. Working in two-flavor lattice QCD, we address essentially all sources of systematic error: lattice artifacts, finite-size effects, quark-mass extrapolation, momentum extrapolation and disconnected diagrams. The most significant remaining systematic error, the exclusion of the strange and charm quark contributions, will be addressed in our four-flavor calculation. We achieve a statistical accuracy of 2% or better for the phy…
This is the second paper on hadronic wave functions in the light front formulation. We first consider only confinement effects, using the classical Nambu-Gotto string with massive end points in the light cone gauge. We derive the light-front Hamiltonian and show how to solve it, using an expansion in suitable basis functions. We next discuss the correlators of Wilson lines on the light front, leading to an effective Hamiltonian that includes spin effects. At the end, we consider a separate problem of instanton-induced interactions, at the origin of the pion as a massless Goldstone mode on the …
The standard approach to determine the parameters of a resonance is based on the study of the volume dependence of the energy spectrum. In this work we study a non-linear sigma model coupled to a scalar field in which a resonance emerges. Using an analysis method introduced recently, based on the concept of probability distribution, it is possible to determine the mass and the width of the resonance.
The quark-line disconnected diagram is a potentially important ingredient in lattice QCD calculations of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. It is also a notoriously difficult one to evaluate. Here, for the first time, we give an estimate of this contribution based on lattice QCD results that have a statistically significant signal, albeit at one value of the lattice spacing and an unphysically heavy value of the $u/d$ quark mass. We use HPQCD's method of determining the anomalous magnetic moment by reconstructing the Adler function from …
Results from the first lattice QCD analysis of vacuum correlators of local hadronic currents using dispersion relations are presented. We have explored the vector, pseudoscalar, axial, and scalar meson channels, and the proton-like and delta-like baryon channels. The lattice results are shown to agree qualitatively with experimental results in channels where experimental data exist, and shed insight into interacting instanton approximations and sum rule calculations in the other channels. 3 figures included (as PostScript files): pi.ps, nd.ps, va.ps : Search for %%% to retrieve the files. Late…
I give a brief introduction to the scope of lattice QCD calculations in our effort to extract the fundamental parameters of the standard model. This goal is illustrated by two examples. First I discuss the extraction of CKM matrix elements from measurements of form factors for semi-leptonic decays of heavy-light pseudoscalar mesons such as $D \to Keν$. Second, I present the status of results for the kaon $B$ parameter relevant to CP violation. I conclude the talk with a short outline of our experiences with optimizing QCD codes on the CM5.
We introduce a new method for calculating the ${\rm O}(α^3)$ hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment from ${ab-initio}$ lattice QCD. We first derive expressions suitable for computing the higher-order contributions either from the renormalized vacuum polarization function $\hatΠ(q^2)$, or directly from the lattice vector-current correlator in Euclidean space. We then demonstrate the approach using previously-published results for the Taylor coefficients of $\hatΠ(q^2)$ that were obtained on four-flavor QCD gauge-field configurations with physical light-q…
We present an update on the ongoing calculations by the Fermilab Lattice, HPQCD, and MILC Collaboration of the leading-order (in electromagnetism) hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Our project employs ensembles with four flavors of highly improved staggered fermions, physical light-quark masses, and four lattice spacings ranging from $a \approx 0.06$ to 0.15 fm for most of the results thus far.
We review theoretical approaches to form factors that arise in heavy-meson decays and are hadronic expressions of non-perturbative QCD. After motivating their origin in QCD factorisation, we retrace their evolution from quark-model calculations to non-perturbative QCD techniques with an emphasis on formulations of truncated heavy-light amplitudes based upon Dyson-Schwinger equations. We compare model predictions exemplarily for the B\toπtransition form factor and discuss new results for the g_{D*Dπ} coupling in the hadronic D* decay.
We study what happens to D and D_s mesons as the temperature increases, using lattice QCD simulations with N_f=2+1 dynamical flavours on anistropic lattices. We have access to five temperatures in the hadronic phase. Using the determined groundstate mass at the lowest temperature, we investigate the effect of rising temperature by analysing ratios of mesonic correlators, without the need for further fitting or spectral reconstruction. In the pseudoscalar and vector channels, we demonstrate that temperature effects are at the percent level and can be captured by a reduction of the groundstate m…
