Lattice measurements provide adequate information to fix the parameters of long distance effective field theories in Euclidean time. Using such a theory, we examine the analytic continuation of long distance correlation functions of composite operators at finite temperature from Euclidean to Minkowski space time. We show through an explicit computation that the analytic continuation of the pion correlation function is possible and gives rise to non-trivial effects. Among them is the possibility, supported by lattice computations of Euclidean correlators, that long distance excitations can be understood in terms of (very massive) pions even at temperatures higher than the QCD cross over temperature.
Lattice measurements provide adequate information to fix the parameters of long distance effective field theories in Euclidean time. Using such a theory, we examine the analytic continuation of long distance correlation functions of composite operators at finite temperature from Euclidean to Minkowski space time. There are two definitions of mass in each regime; in Euclidean these are the screening and pole masses. The analytic continuation of these mass parameters to real time is non-trivial. This is in contrast to the situation at zero temperature.
The study of one or more baryons in lattice QCD is severely hindered by the exponential decay in time of the signal-to-noise ratio. The rate at which the signal-to-noise decreases is a function of the the pion mass. More precisely, it depends on the minimum allowed pion energy in the box, which, for periodic boundary conditions, is equal to its mass. We propose a set of boundary conditions, given by a "parity orbifold'' construction, which eliminates the zero momentum pion modes, raising the minimum pion energy without altering the QCD ground state, and thereby improving the signal-to-noise ra…
We present the first determination of the $x$-dependent pion gluon distribution from lattice QCD using the pseudo-PDF approach. We use lattice ensembles with 2+1+1 flavors of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ), generated by MILC Collaboration, at two lattice spacings $a\approx 0.12$ and 0.15~fm and three pion masses $M_π\approx 220$, 310 and 690 MeV. We use clover fermions for the valence action and momentum smearing to achieve pion boost momentum up to 2.29 GeV. We find that the dependence of the pion gluon parton distribution on lattice spacing and pion mass is mild. We compare our resu…
We present the $x$-dependent nucleon and pion gluon distribution from lattice QCD using the pseudo-PDF approach, on lattice ensembles with $2+1+1$ flavors of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ), generated by MILC Collaboration. We use clover fermions for the valence action and momentum smearing to achieve pion boost momentum up to 2.56~GeV on three lattice spacings $a\approx 0.9, 0.12$ and 0.15~fm and three pion masses $M_π\approx 220$, 310 and 690~MeV. We compare our pion and preliminary nucleon gluon results with the determination by global fits.
Using only global symmetries of QCD, we set up an effective model of quarks at finite temperature near the cross over, including all possible terms up to dimension 6. We first treat this in mean field theory. Then we investigate low-energy fluctuations around it up to one-loop order in fermions below the cross over. Static correlation functions of pions and the cross over temperature, both measured on the lattice, completely suffice to fix all parameters of the theory. We examine predictions of this theory, including those for thermodynamic quantities. The results are encouraging.
We use 2HEX smeared gauge configurations generated with an $\mathrm{N}_\mathrm{f}\mathrm{=2+1}$ clover improved Wilson action to investigate $ππ$ scattering in the $ρ$ channel. The range of lattice spacings (0.054 to 0.12 fm) and space-like extents (32 and 48) allows us to extract the scattering parameters through the volume dependence of the $ππ$-state energies according to Lüscher's formalism. The pion masses (134 to 300 MeV) are light enough to allow the decay of the rho and the level repulsion observed indicates that our data are sensitive to the interaction. We analyse our data with a mul…
We report on a program to compute the electromagnetic form factors of mesons. We discuss the techniques used to compute the pion form factor and present results computed with domain wall valence fermions on MILC asqtad lattices, as well as with Wilson fermions on quenched lattices. The methods can easily be extended to rho-to-gamma-pi transition form factors.
The ground-state energies of 2, 3, 4 and 5 π^+'s in a spatial volume V (2.5 fm)^3 are computed with lattice QCD. By eliminating the leading contribution from three-π^+ interactions, particular combinations of these n-π^+ ground-state energies provide precise extractions of the π^+π^+ scattering length in agreement with that obtained from calculations involving only two π^+'s. The three-π^+ interaction can be isolated by forming other combinations of the n-π^+ ground-state energies. We find a result that is consistent with a repulsive three-π^+ interaction for m_π< 352 MeV.
We analyze the phase diagram of quantum chromodynamics at low-to-moderate temperature, baryon chemical potential and external magnetic field within chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order of the derivative expansion. Our main result is that the anomaly-induced chiral soliton lattice (CSL) phase is stabilized by thermal fluctuations. As a consequence, the CSL state may survive up to temperatures at which chiral symmetry is restored.
We present the first lattice-QCD calculation of the kaon valence-quark distribution functions using the large-momentum effective theory (LaMET) approach. The calculation is performed with multiple pion masses with the lightest one around 220 MeV, 2 lattice spacings $a=0.06$ and 0.12 fm, $(M_π)_\text{min} L \approx 5.5$, and high statistics ranging from 11,600 to 61,312 measurements. We also calculate the valence-quark distribution of pion and find it to be consistent with the FNAL E615 experimental results, and our ratio of the $u$ quark PDF in the kaon to that in the pion agrees with the CERN…
Pion-pion elastic scattering in the isospin I=2 channel is investigated in two-flavor dynamical lattice QCD. Six ensembles are used with lattices elongated in one of the spatial dimensions at two quark masses corresponding to a pion mass of 315 MeV and 226 MeV. The energy of the low-lying states below the inelastic threshold are extracted in each case using the standard variational method.The extracted finite-volume spectrum is fitted by the inverse amplitude method simultaneously for both quark masses and extrapolated thereafter to the physical point. The resulting phase-shifts and scattering…
The elastic $I=1$ $p$-wave $ππ$ scattering amplitude is calculated together with the isovector timelike pion form factor using lattice QCD with $N_{\rm f}=2+1$ dynamical quark flavors. Wilson clover ensembles generated by the Coordinated Lattice Simulations (CLS) initiative are employed at four lattice spacings down to $a = 0.05\,\mathrm{fm}$, several pion masses down to $m_π = 200\,\mathrm{MeV}$, and spatial volumes of extent $L = 3.1-5.5\,\mathrm{fm}$. The set of measurements on these ensembles, which is publicly available, enables an investigation of systematic errors due to the finite latt…
We present our results on the electromagnetic form factor of pion over a wide range of $Q^2$ using lattice QCD simulations with Wilson-clover valence quarks and HISQ sea quarks. We study the form factor at the physical point with a lattice spacing $a=0.076$ fm. To study the lattice spacing and quark mass effects, we also present results for 300 MeV pion at two different lattice spacings $a=0.04$ and 0.06 fm. The lattice calculations at the physical quark mass appear to agree with the experimental results. Through fits to the form factor, we estimate the charge radius of pion for physical pion …
We show that the interplay of chiral effective field theory and lattice QCD can be used in the evaluation of so-called disconnected diagrams, which appear in the study of the isoscalar and isovector channels of pion-pion scattering and have long been a major challenge for the lattice community. By means of partially-quenched chiral perturbation theory, we distinguish and analyze the effects from different types of contraction diagrams to the pion-pion scattering amplitude, including its scattering lengths and the energy-dependence of its imaginary part. Our results may be used to test the curr…
We present the first exploratory lattice QCD calculation of the pion valence quark distribution extracted from spatially separated current-current correlations in coordinate space. We show that an antisymmetric combination of vector and axial-vector currents provides direct information on the pion valence quark distribution. Using the collinear factorization approach, we calculate the perturbative tree-level kernel for this current combination and extract the pion valence distribution. The main goal of this article is to demonstrate the efficacy of this general lattice QCD approach in the reli…
We report the first Lattice QCD calculation using the almost physical pion mass mpi=149 MeV that agrees with experiment for four fundamental isovector observables characterizing the gross structure of the nucleon: the Dirac and Pauli radii, the magnetic moment, and the quark momentum fraction. The key to this success is the combination of using a nearly physical pion mass and excluding the contributions of excited states. An analogous calculation of the nucleon axial charge governing beta decay has inconsistencies indicating a source of bias at low pion masses not present for the other observa…
We use chiral perturbation theory to study the extraction of pion electromagnetic polarizabilities from lattice QCD. Chiral extrapolation formulae are derived for partially quenched QCD, and quenched QCD simulations. On a torus, volume dependence of electromagnetic observables is complicated by SO(4) breaking, as well as photon zero-mode interactions. We determine finite volume corrections to the Compton scattering tensor of pions. We argue, however, that such results cannot be used to ascertain volume corrections to polarizabilities determined in lattice QCD with background field methods. Con…
We study the coupled pion-nucleon system (negative parity, isospin 1/2) based on a lattice QCD simulation for nf=2 mass degenerate light quarks. Both, standard 3-quarks baryon operators as well as meson-baryon (4+1)-quark operators are included. This is an exploratory study for just one lattice size and lattice spacing and at a pion mass of 266 MeV. Using the distillation method and variational analysis we determine energy levels of the lowest eigenstates. Comparison with the results of simple 3-quark correlation studies exhibits drastic differences and a new level appears. A clearer picture o…
We analyze the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter quark wave functions of the pion in various models. We discuss how the quenched lattice QCD results with delocalized pion interpolators can be identified with the coarse grained wave functions, typical of low-energy effective models. Actually, we find that one-loop chiral quark models predict that pseudoscalar and tensor wave functions have the same shape, while the axial component is more extended. These facts are accurately confirmed by the lattice. We also show how the transversity information, relevant for the light-cone physics, can be straightforw…
We present a lattice calculation of the vector form factor of the pion for two flavours of non-perturbatively O(a) improved Wilson fermions. For the measurements we utilise the CLS ensembles which include various lattice spacings and pion masses down to about 250 MeV. To obtain a fine momentum resolution near zero momentum transfer (q^2) partially twisted boundary conditions are employed using several twist angles. Due to the fine resolution around q^2=0 we are able to determine the slope of the form factor and, in turn, extract the charge radius of the pion without any model dependence. The r…
I compare the lattice calculation of Fukugita et al. for the pion S-wave scattering lengths to the predictions of Chiral Perturbation Theory to two loop accuracy. I find good agreement, despite the use of the quenched approximation in the lattice calculation.
We summarize recent evidence, both from lattice QCD and chiral perturbation theory, that suggests that larger-than-expected excited-state contamination could be the reason for the tension between phenomenological determinations and previous direct lattice-QCD calculations of the pion--nucleon sigma term $σ_{πN}$. In addition, we extend the $χ$PT analysis by calculating the corrections due to including the $Δ(1232)$ resonance as an explicit degree of freedom. This correction is found to be small, thereby corroborating the excited-state effects found in the $Δ$-less calculation and the result fo…
We present a lattice calculation of the electromagnetic form factor of the pion obtained using the tree-level Symanzik improved gauge action with two flavors of dynamical twisted Wilson quarks. The simulated pion masses range approximately from 260 to 580 MeV and the lattice box sizes are chosen in order to guarantee that M L > 4. Accurate results for the form factor are obtained using all-to-all quark propagators evaluated by a stochastic procedure. The momentum dependence of the pion form factor is investigated up to values of the squared four-momentum transfer Q**2 ~ 0.8 GeV**2 and, thanks …
The pion-mass dependence of the nucleon mass within the covariant SU(2) baryon chiral perturbation theory both without and with explicit Delta(1232) degrees of freedom up to order p^4 is investigated. By fitting to lattice QCD data in 2 and 2+1 flavors from several collaborations, for pion masses M_pi < 420 MeV, we obtain low energy constants of natural size and compatible with pion nucleon scattering data. Our results are consistent with the rather linear pion-mass dependence showed by lattice QCD. In the 2 flavor case we have also performed simultaneous fits to the nucleon mass and pion-nucl…
Current status of nucleon structure calculations with joint RBC and UKQCD 2+1-flavor dynamical domain-wall fermions (DWF) lattice QCD is reported: Two ensembles with pion mass of about (m_π=170) MeV and 250 MeV are used. The lattice cutoff is set at about 1.4 GeV, allowing a large spatial volume of about (L=4.6) fm across while maintaining a sufficiently small residual breaking of chiral symmetry with the dislocation-suppressing-determinant-ratio (DSDR) gauge action. We calculate all the isovector form factors and some low moments of isovector structure functions. We confirm the finite-size ef…
We extract pion parton distribution functions (PDFs) in a Monte Carlo global QCD analysis of experimental data together with reduced Ioffe time pseudo-distributions and matrix elements of current-current correlators generated from lattice QCD. By including both experimental and lattice QCD data, our analysis rigorously quantifies both the uncertainties of the pion PDFs and systematic effects intrinsic to the lattice QCD observables. The reduced Ioffe time pseudo-distributions significantly decrease the uncertainties on the PDFs, while the current-current correlators are limited by the systemat…
Two-photon decays probe the structure of mesons and represent an important contribution to hadronic light-by-light scattering. For the neutral pion, the decay amplitude tests the effects of the chiral anomaly; for a heavy quarkonium state, it measures the magnitude of its wavefunction at the origin. We rederive the expression of the decay amplitude in terms of a Euclidean correlation function starting from the theory defined on the torus. The derivation shows that for timelike photons the approach to the infinite-volume decay amplitude is exponential in the periodic box size.
We investigate the utility of partially twisted boundary conditions in lattice calculations of meson observables. For dynamical simulations, we show that the pion dispersion relation is modified by volume effects. In the isospin limit, we demonstrate that the pion electromagnetic form factor can be computed on the lattice at continuous values of the momentum transfer. Furthermore, the finite volume effects are under theoretical control for extraction of the pion charge radius.
We present an update on our on-going project to compute hadronic observables for Nf=2 flavours of O(a) improved Wilson fermions at small lattice spacings. The procedure to determine the lattice scale via the mass of the Omega baryon is described. Furthermore we present preliminary results for the pion form factor computed using twisted boundary conditions, and report on the implementation of a novel approach to determine the contribution of the hadronic vacuum polarisation to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.
We present a calculation of the charged pion electric polarizability using the background field method. To extract the mass-shift induced by the electric field for the accelerated charged particle we fit the lattice QCD correlators using correlators derived from an effective model. The methodology outlined in this study (boundary conditions, fitting procedure, etc.) is designed to ensure that the results are invariant under gauge transformations of the background field. We apply the method to four $N_f=2$ dynamical ensembles to extract $α_{π^\pm}$ at pion mass of $315$ MeV.
We analyze the moments of parton distribution functions in the pion calculated in lattice QCD, paying particular attention to their chiral extrapolation. Using the lowest three non-trivial moments calculated on the lattice, we assess the accuracy with which the x dependence of both the valence and sea quark distributions in the pion can be extracted. The resulting valence quark distributions at the physical pion mass are in fair agreement with existing Drell-Yan data, but the statistical errors are such that one cannot yet confirm (or rule out) the large-x behavior expected from hadron helicit…
Using the tadpole improved Wilson quark action on small, coarse and anisotropic lattices, $Kπ$ scattering length in the $I=3/2$ channel is calculated within quenched approximation. The results are extrapolated towards the chiral and physical kaon mass region. Finite volume and finite lattice spacing errors are also analyzed and a result in the infinite volume and continuum limit is obtained. Our result is compared with the results obtained using Roy equations, Chiral Perturbation Theory, dispersion relations and the experimental data.
In this article we describe our studies of the sigma meson, f_0(500), using two-pion correlation functions. We use lattice quantum chromodynamics in the quenched approximation with so-called clover fermions. By working at unphysical pion masses we are able to identify a would-be resonance with mass less than $2 m_π$, and then extrapolate to the physical point. We include the most important annihilation diagram, which is "partially disconnnected" or "single annihilation." Because this diagram is quite expensive to compute, we introduce a somewhat novel technique for the computation of all-to-al…
We present the first lattice-QCD calculation of the pion distribution amplitude using the large- momentum effective field theory (LaMET) approach, which allows us to extract lightcone parton observables from a Euclidean lattice. The mass corrections needed to extract the pion distribution amplitude from this approach are calculated to all orders in $m^2_π /P_z^2$. We also implement the Wilson- line renormalization which is crucial to remove the power divergences in this approach, and find that it reduces the oscillation at the end points of the distribution amplitude. Our exploratory result at…
The pion light-cone distribution amplitude (LCDA) is a central non-perturbative object of interest for high-energy exclusive processes in quantum chromodynamics. In this article, the second Mellin moment of the pion LCDA is determined as a proof-of-concept calculation for the first numerical implementation of the heavy-quark operator product expansion (HOPE) method. The resulting value for the second Mellin moment, determined in quenched QCD at a pion mass of $m_π=550$ MeV at a factorization scale of 2 GeV is $ \langle ξ^2 \rangle = 0.210 \pm 0.013\text{ (stat.)} \pm 0.034\text{ (sys.)}$. This…
We present the first lattice calculation of the nucleon isovector unpolarized generalized parton distribution (GPD) at the physical pion mass using a lattice ensemble with 2+1+1 flavors of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ) generated by MILC Collaboration, with lattice spacing $a\approx 0.09$~fm and volume $64^3\times 96$. We use momentum-smeared sources to improve the signal at nucleon boost momentum $P_z \approx 2.2$ GeV, and report results at nonzero momentum transfers in $[0.2,1.0]\text{ GeV}^2$. Nonperturbative renormalization in RI/MOM scheme is used to obtain the quasi-distribution…
The Lattice results for the pion and kaon decay constants are analysed within the Resonance Chiral Theory framework in the large NC limit. The approximately linear behaviour of the observable at large light-quark mass is explained through the interaction with the lightest multiplet of scalar resonances. The analysis of the Lattice results allows to obtain the resonance mass MS=1049 +- 25 MeV and the Chiral Perturbation Theory parameters at leading order in 1/NC.
We present the first lattice calculation of the valence-quark generalized parton distribution (GPD) of the pion using the large-momentum effective theory (LaMET) approach. We focus on the zero-skewness limit, where the GPD has a probability-density interpretation in the longitudinal Bjorken $x$ and the transverse impact-parameter distributions. Our calculation is done using clover valence fermions on an ensemble of gauge configurations with $2+1+1$ flavors (degenerate up/down, strange and charm) of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ) with lattice spacing $a \approx 0.12$ fm, box size $L \a…
We present the first nonperturbatively-renormalized determination of the glue momentum fraction $\langle x \rangle_g$ in the nucleon, based on lattice-QCD simulations at physical pion mass using the cluster-decomposition error reduction (CDER) technique. We provide the first practical strategy to renormalize the glue energy-momentum tensor (EMT) nonperturbatively in the RI/MOM scheme, and convert the results to the $\overline{\textrm{MS}}$ scheme with 1-loop matching. The simulation results show that the CDER technique can reduce the statistical uncertainty of its renormalization constant by a…
I present higher loop order results for several calculations in Chiral perturbation Theory. 1) Two-loop results at finite volume for hadronic vacuum polarization. 2) A three-loop calculation of the pion mass and decay constant in two-flavour ChPT. For the pion mass all needed auxiliary parameters can be determined from lattice calculations of $ππ$-scattering. 3) Chiral corrections to neutron-anti-neutron oscillations.
We analyze the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter quark wave function of the pion obtained from a quenched lattice QCD calculation with delocalized quark interpolators. We find that the result agrees remarkably well with the predictions of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model in all channels. We choose the quenched lattice QCD, since it is closer to the large-Nc limit of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We also show how transversity information, relevant for the light-cone physics, can be obtained from our equal-time rest-frame lattice calculations.
We present an analysis of the pion-nucleon $σ$-term, $σ_{πN}$, using six ensembles with 2+1+1-flavor highly improved staggered quark action generated by the MILC collaboration. The most serious systematic effect in lattice calculations of nucleon correlation functions is the contribution of excited states. We estimate these using chiral perturbation theory ($χ$PT), and show that the leading contribution to the isoscalar scalar charge comes from N$π$ and N$ππ$ states. Therefore, we carry out two analyses of lattice data to remove excited-state contamination, the standard one and a new one inclu…
We extend our study of the pion scalar radius in two-flavour lattice QCD to include two additional lattice spacings as well as lighter pion masses, enabling us to perform a combined chiral and continuum extrapolation. We find discretisation artefacts to be small for the radius, and confirm the importance of the disconnected diagrams in reproducing the correct chiral behaviour. Our final result for the scalar radius of the pion at the physical point is $\left\langle r^2\right\rangle^π_{\rm S}=0.600\pm0.052$ fm$^2$, corresponding to a value of $\overline{\ell}_4=4.54\pm0.30$ for the low-energy c…
We perform a lattice study of double parton distributions in the pion, using the relationship between their Mellin moments and pion matrix elements of two local currents. A good statistical signal is obtained for almost all relevant Wick contractions. We investigate correlations in the spatial distribution of two partons in the pion, as well as correlations involving the parton polarisation. The patterns we observe depend significantly on the quark mass. We investigate the assumption that double parton distributions approximately factorise into a convolution of single parton distributions.
We compute the electromagnetic form factor of the pion using non-perturbatively O(a) improved Wilson fermions. The calculations are done for a wide range of pion masses and lattice spacings. We check for finite size effects by repeating some of the measurements on smaller lattices. The large number of lattice parameters we use allows us to extrapolate to the physical point. For the square of the charge radius we find <r^2>=0.441(20) fm^2, in good agreement with experiment.
We present a lattice-QCD calculation of the pion, kaon and $η_s$ distribution amplitudes using large-momentum effective theory (LaMET). Our calculation is carried out using three ensembles with 2+1+1 flavors of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ), generated by MILC collaboration, at 310 MeV pion mass with 0.06, 0.09 and 0.12 fm lattice spacings. We use clover fermion action for the valence quarks and tune the quark mass to match the lightest light and strange masses in the sea. The resulting lattice matrix elements are nonperturbatively renormalized in regularization-independent momentum-s…
The Boer-Mulders transverse momentum-dependent parton distribution (TMD) characterizes polarized quark transverse momentum in an unpolarized hadron. Techniques previously developed for lattice calculations of nucleon TMDs are applied to the pion. These techniques are based on the evaluation of matrix elements of quark bilocal operators containing a staple-shaped Wilson connection. Results for the Boer-Mulders transverse momentum shift in the pion, obtained at a pion mass of $m_π = 518\, \mbox{MeV} $, are presented and compared to corresponding results in the nucleon.
In this contribution I present a brief summary of recent progress in selected Lattice QCD techniques and subsequently illustrate them using the example of the current calculations of moments of meson distribution amplitude as well as of a direct evaluation of meson distribution amplitude.
We study the topological susceptibility, chi, in two flavour lattice QCD. We find clear evidence for the expected suppression of chi at small quark mass. The estimate of the pion decay constant, f_pi = 105 +/-5 +18/-10 MeV, is consistent with the experimental value of approximately 93 MeV. We compare chi to the large-N_c prediction and find consistency over a large range of quark masses.
We calculate the pion transition form factor ${\cal F}_{π^0γ^*γ^*}(q_1^2,q_2^2)$, which describe the interaction of an on-shell pion with two off-shell photons, using lattice QCD simulations with two degenerate flavors of dynamical quarks. This form factor is the main ingredient in the calculation of the pion-pole contribution to hadronic light-by-light scattering in the muon $g-2$, $a_μ^{\mathrm{HLbL}; π^0}$. We focus our study on the spacelike region with photon virtualities up to $1.5~\mathrm{GeV}^2$, not yet measured experimentally. Several lattice spacings and pion masses are used to extr…
We present the state-of-the-art lattice QCD calculation of the pion and kaon light-cone distribution amplitudes (DAs) using large-momentum effective theory. The calculation is done at three lattice spacings $a\approx\{0.06,0.09,0.12\}$ fm and physical pion and kaon masses, with the meson momenta $P_z = \{1.29,1.72,2.15\}$ GeV. The result is non-perturbatively renormalized in a recently proposed hybrid scheme with self renormalization, and extrapolated to the continuum as well as the infinite momentum limit. We find a significant deviation of the pion and kaon DAs from the asymptotic form, and …
We present a high-statistics lattice QCD determination of the valence parton distribution function (PDF) of the pion, with a mass of 300 MeV, using two very fine lattice spacings of $a=0.06$ fm and 0.04 fm. We reconstruct the $x$-dependent PDF, as well as infer the first few even moments of the PDF using leading-twist 1-loop perturbative matching framework. Our analyses use both RI-MOM and ratio-based schemes to renormalize the equal-time bi-local quark-bilinear matrix elements of pions boosted up to 2.4 GeV momenta. We use various model-independent and model-dependent analyses to infer the la…
