We present the first Monte Carlo based global QCD analysis of spin-averaged and spin-dependent parton distribution functions (PDFs) that includes nucleon isovector matrix elements in coordinate space from lattice QCD. We investigate the degree of universality of the extracted PDFs when the lattice and experimental data are treated under the same conditions within the Bayesian likelihood analysis. For the unpolarized sector, we find rather weak constraints from the current lattice data on the phenomenological PDFs, and difficulties in describing the lattice matrix elements at large spatial distances. In contrast, for the polarized PDFs we find good agreement between experiment and lattice data, with the latter providing significant constraints on the spin-dependent isovector quark and antiquark distributions.
Nuclear modification factors of single hadrons and dihadrons at large transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are studied in a next-to-leading-order (NLO) perturbative QCD parton model. Parton fragmentation functions (FFs) in $A+A$ collisions are modified due to jet energy loss which is proportional to the jet transport coefficient $\hat{q}$ characterizing the interaction between the parton jet and the produced medium. By confronting 6 current sets of NLO parton FFs for large $p_{\rm T}$ hadron productions, we extract $\hat{q}$ quantitatively via a global fit to d…
We compute the QCD equation of state for zero temperature and finite isospin density within the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in the mean field approximation, motivated by the recently obtained Lattice QCD results for a new class of compact stars: pion stars. We have considered both the commonly used Traditional cutoff Regularization Scheme and the Medium Separation Scheme, where in the latter purely vacuum contributions are separated in such a way that one is left with ultraviolet divergent momentum integrals depending only on vacuum quantities. We have also compared our results with the recent re…
The inclusive spectra of charged particles measured at high transverse momenta ($p_T\gtrsim$2GeV/c) in proton-proton and proton-antiproton collisions in the range of center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=200-7000$GeV are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using seven recent sets of parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions (FFs). Accounting for the uncertainties in the scale choices and in the parton distribution functions, we find that most of the theoretical predictions tend to overpredict the measured LHC and Tevatron cross sections by up to a factor of two. We ide…
The future runs of LHC offer a unique opportunity to measure correlations between two partons inside the proton, which have never been experimentally detected. The process of interest is the production of two positively charged W-bosons decaying in the muon channel. We present a detailed analysis of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, where we combine Monte Carlo event generators with our calculations of parton correlations. We carefully compare double parton scattering to relevant background processes and trace a path towards a clean signal sample. Several observables are constru…
We construct net baryon number and strangeness susceptibilities as well as correlations between electric charge and strangeness from experimental data of the ALICE Collaboration at the CERN LHC. The data were taken in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=2.76 TeV. The resulting fluctuations and correlations are consistent with Lattice QCD results at the chiral crossover pseudocritical temperature $T_c\simeq 155$ MeV. This agreement lends strong support to the assumption that the fireball created in these collisions is of thermal origin and exhibits characteristic properties expected in QCD at t…
We construct net baryon number and strangeness susceptibilities as well as correlations between electric charge, strangeness and baryon number from experimental data on the particle production yields at midrapidity of the ALICE Collaboration at CERN. The data were taken in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$~=~2.76~TeV and cover one unit of rapidity. We show that the resulting fluctuations and correlations are consistent with Lattice QCD results at the chiral crossover pseudocritical temperature $T_{c} \simeq$ 155 MeV. This agreement lends strong support to the assumption that the …
The Polyakov-quark-meson (PQM) model, which combines chiral as well as deconfinement aspects of strongly interacting matter is introduced for three light quark flavors. An analysis of the chiral and deconfinement phase transition of the model and its thermodynamics at finite temperatures is given. Three different forms of the effective Polyakov loop potential are considered. The findings of the (2+1)-flavor model investigations are confronted to corresponding recent QCD lattice simulations of the RBC-Bielefeld, HotQCD and Wuppertal-Budapest collaborations. The influence of the heavier quark ma…
Extending our recently published $SU(2)$ results for zero temperature we now compute the QCD equation of state for finite isospin density within the three flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in the mean field approximation, motivated by the recently obtained Lattice QCD results for both zero and finite temperatures. Like our previous study, here also we have considered both the commonly used Traditional cutoff Regularization Scheme and the Medium Separation Scheme. Our results are compared with recent high-precision lattice simulations as well as previously obtained results in two-flavor Nambu-Jon…
NJL-type effective models represent a low-energy realization of QCD and incorporate pertinent aspects such as chiral symmetry and its spontaneous breaking, the center symmetry in the heavy-quark limit as well as the axial anomaly. One such model, the Polyakov-quark-meson model for three light quark flavors, is introduced in order to study the phase structure of strongly-interacting matter. With recent high-statistics lattice QCD simulations of the finite-temperature equation of state, a detailed comparison with model results becomes accessible. Such comparisons allow to estimate volume and tru…
Experimental data on the total cross section of $e^+ e^-$ annihilation into hadrons are confronted with QCD and the operator product expansion using finite energy sum rules. Specifically, the power corrections in the operator product expansion, i.e. the vacuum condensates, of dimension $d = 2$, 4 and 6 are determined using recent isospin $I=0+1$ data sets. Reasonably stable results are obtained which are compatible within errors with values from $τ$-decay. However, the rather large data uncertainties, together with the current value of the strong coupling constant, lead to very large errors in…
We exploit a recent lattice investigation (UKQCD) on the topological structure of the (quenched) QCD vacuum, in order to gain information on crucial building blocks of instanton perturbation theory. A central motivation is to further constrain our previous predictions of instanton-induced hard scattering processes. First, we address the generic problem of extracting quantitative information from cooled lattice data. We find a new scaling variable, interpreted as a "cooling radius", which allows to combine lattice data for a whole range of lattice spacings and cooling sweeps. This variable stro…
The (non-strange) vector and axial-vector spectral functions extracted from $τ$-decay by the ALEPH collaboration are confronted with QCD in the framework of a Finite Energy QCD sum rule (FESR) involving a polynomial kernel tuned to suppress the region beyond the kinematical end point where there is no longer data. This effectively allows for a QCD FESR analysis to be performed beyond the region of the existing data. Results show excellent agreement between data and perturbative QCD in the remarkably wide energy range $s = 3 - 10 {GeV}^2$, leaving room for a dimension $d$ =4 vacuum condensate c…
We discuss the low energy effective action of QCD in the quark sector. When it is built at the CSB (chiral symmetry breaking) scale by means of perturbation theory it has the structure of a generalized Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model with CSB due to attractive forces in the scalar channel. We show that if the lowest scalar meson state is sufficiently lighter than the heavy pseudoscalar $π'$ then QCD favors a low-energy effective theory in which higher dimensional operators (of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio type) are dominated and relatively strong. A light scalar quarkonium ($m_σ= 500 ÷600$ MeV) would…
We use QCD sum rules with nonlocal condensates to re-calculate more accurately the moments and their confidence intervals of the twist-2 pion distribution amplitude including radiative corrections. We are thus able to construct an admissible set of pion distribution amplitudes which define a reliability region in the $a_{2}$, $a_{4}$ plane of the Gegenbauer polynomial expansion coefficients. We emphasize that models like that of Chernyak and Zhitnitsky, as well as the asymptotic solution, are excluded from this set. We show that the determined $a_{2}$, $a_{4}$ region strongly overlaps with tha…
In this paper we compare the experimental HERA data with the next-to-leading order approach (NLO) of Ref.[C.~Contreras, E.~Levin, R.~Meneses and M.~Sanhueza,Eur. Phys. J. C 80 (2020) no.11, 1029). This approach includes the re-summed NLO corrections to the kernel of the evolution equation, the correct asymptotic behaviour in the NLO at $τ= r^2 Q^2_s \,\gg\,1$; the impact parameter dependence of the saturation scale in accord with the Froissarrt theorem as well as the non-linear corrections. In this paper, we successfully describe the experimental data with the quality, which is not worse, than…
We present an updated fit of supersymmetric SO(10) models to quark and lepton masses and mixing parameters. Including latest results from lattice QCD determinations of quark masses and neutrino oscillation data, we show that fits neglecting supersymmetric threshold corrections are strongly disfavoured in our setup. Only when we include these corrections we find good fit points. We present $χ^2$-profiles for the threshold parameters, which show that in our setup the thresholds related to the third generation of fermions exhibit two rather narrow minima.
This work presents the first calculation in lattice QCD of three moments of spin-averaged and spin-polarized generalized parton distributions in the proton. It is shown that the slope of the associated generalized form factors decreases significantly as the moment increases, indicating that the transverse size of the light-cone quark distribution decreases as the momentum fraction of the struck parton increases.
We review the calculation of moments of both the polarized and unpolarized parton distribution functions of the nucleon in lattice QCD, and in particular their extrapolation to the physical region. We also discuss the reconstruction of the x dependence of the valence quark distributions in the nucleon from a finite number of lattice moments.
Parton distribution functions (PDFs) are nonperturbative quantities describing the relation between a hadron and quarks and gluons within it. We propose to extract PDFs from QCD global analysis of "data" generated by lattice QCD calculations of good "lattice cross sections", which are basically single-hadron matrix elements that are lattice QCD calculable and perturbative QCD factorizable into the PDFs. To demonstrate the existence of good "lattice cross sections", we take quasi-quark distribution introduced by Ji [1] as a case study to show that it could be factorized into the PDFs to all ord…
Parton distribution functions are key quantities for us to understand the hadronic structures in high-energy scattering, but they are difficult to calculate from lattice QCD. Recent years have seen fast development of the large-momentum effective theory which allows extraction of the $x$-dependence of parton distribution functions from a quasi-parton distribution function that can be directly calculated on lattice. The extraction is based on a factorization formula for the quasi-parton distribution function that has been derived rigorously in perturbation theory. A systematic procedure that in…
Following our previous proposal [1], we construct a class of good "lattice cross sections" (LCSs), from which we could study partonic structure of hadrons from ab initio lattice QCD calculations. These good LCSs, on the one hand, can be calculated directly in lattice QCD, and on the other hand, can be factorized into parton distribution functions (PDFs) with calculable coefficients, in the same way as QCD factorization for factorizable hadronic cross sections. PDFs could be extracted from QCD global analysis of the lattice QCD generated data of LCSs. We also show that proposed functions for la…
We briefly discuss the current status of lattice QCD simulations and review selective results on nucleon observables focusing on recent developments in the lattice QCD evaluation of the nucleon form factors and radii, parton distribution functions and their moments, and the neutron electric dipole moment. Nucleon charges and moments of parton distribution functions are presented using simulations generated at physical values of the quark masses, while exploratory studies are performed for the parton distribution functions and the neutron electric dipole moment at heavier than physical value of…
We present recent results on the first moments of parton distributions using gauge configurations generated with two degenerate flavors of light twisted mass quarks with pion mass fixed approximately to its physical value. We also present a first study of the vector parton distribution function using a twisted mass ensemble at pion mass of 373 MeV.
We discuss a new scenario for early cosmology, when inflationary de Sitter phase dynamically emergent. This genuine quantum effect occurs as a result of dynamics of the topologically nontrivial sectors in a (conjectured) strongly coupled QCD- like gauge theory with scale ${Λ_{\overline{\mathrm{QCD}}}} \sim 10^{17} $ GeV in expanding universe. Inflaton in this ${\overline{\mathrm{QCD}}}$- inflation framework is an auxiliary non-propagating field, similar to an effective field known to emerge in topologically ordered condensed matter systems. Number of e-folds in the ${\overline{\mathrm{QCD}}}$-…
We present recent results on generalized parton distributions from dynamical lattice QCD calculations. Our set of twelve different combinations of couplings and quark masses allows for a preliminary study of the pion mass dependence of the transverse nucleon structure.
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…
We present the unpolarized and helicity parton distribution functions calculated within lattice QCD simulations using physical values of the light quark mass. Non-perturbative renormalization is employed and the lattice data are converted to the MSbar-scheme at a scale of 2 GeV. A matching process is applied together with target mass corrections leading to the reconstruction of light-cone parton distribution functions. For both cases we find a similar behavior between the lattice and phenomenological data, and for the polarized PDF a nice overlap for a range of Bjorken-x values. This presents …
We perform a quenched lattice calculation of the first moment of twist-two generalized parton distribution functions of the proton, and assess the total quark (spin and orbital angular momentum) contribution to the spin of the proton.
We derive a generalized form of Altarelli-Parisi equations to decribe the time evolution of parton distributions in a nuclear medium. In the framework of the leading logarithmic approximation, we obtain a set of coupled integro- differential equations for the parton distribution functions and equations for the virtuality (``age'') distribution of partons. In addition to parton branching processes, we take into account fusion and scattering processes that are specific to QCD in medium. Detailed balance between gain and loss terms in the resulting evolution equations correctly accounts for both …
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.
A first attempt to apply the AdS/QCD framework for a bottom-up approach to the evaluation of the effective cross section for double parton scattering in proton-proton collisions is presented. The main goal is the analytic evaluation of the dependence of the effective cross section on the longitudinal momenta of the involved partons, obtained within the holographic Soft-Wall model. If measured in high-energy processes at hadron colliders, this momentum dependence could open a new window on 2-parton correlations in a proton.
The relevance of parton interaction rates for observables of a quark- gluon plasma and for testing field theoretical methods is exhibited. Using the Braaten-Pisarski method the interaction rate as well as the transport rate beyond the leading logarithm approximation are estimated. Limts on the validity of perturbative QCD for relativistic heavy ion collisions are discussed.
We construct the quasi-parton distributions of mesons for two-dimensional QCD with either scalar or spinor quarks using the $1/N_c$ expansion. We show that in the infinite momentum limit, the parton distribution function is recovered in both leading and sub-leading order in $1/N_c$.
We review the latest progress in lattice QCD calculations of the partonic structure of hadrons. This structure is, in particular, described in terms of $x$-dependent distributions, the simplest of which are the standard parton distribution functions (PDFs). The lattice calculations rely on matrix elements probing spatial correlations between partons in a boosted hadron, that can be matched to light-cone correlations defining the relevant distributions. We discuss the recent theoretical and practical refinements of this strategy, as well as new exploratory directions. The latter include general…
Quasi-parton distribution functions have received a lot of attentions in both perturbative QCD and lattice QCD communities in recent years because they not only carry good information on the parton distribution functions, but also could be evaluated by lattice QCD simulations. However, unlike the parton distribution functions, the quasi-parton distribution functions have perturbative ultraviolet power divergences because they are not defined by twist-2 operators. In this paper, we identify all sources of ultraviolet divergences for the quasi-parton distribution functions in coordinate-space, a…
The branching processes in parton showers are studied in perturbative QCD for both quark and gluon jets. The emphasis is on the nature of fluctuations of both the parton multiplicities and the spatial patterns of the final states. Effective measures of such fluctuations are calculated from the data obtained by Monte Carlo simulations. The entropy indices are used to characterize chaoticity. Both running and fixed couplings are considered. The fixed coupling case is used to study the onset of chaos. Implications of the results are discussed.
We present an initiatory study of quark helicity flip generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in n_f=2 lattice QCD, based on clover-improved Wilson fermions for a large number of coupling constants and pion masses. Quark helicity flip GPDs yield essential information on the transverse spin structure of the nucleon. In this work, we show first results on their lowest moments and dipole masses and study the corresponding chiral and continuum extrapolations.
The gluonic contribution to the nuclear modification factor R_AA is investigated for central Au + Au collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV employing a perturbative QCD-based parton cascade including radiative processes. A flat quenching pattern is found up to transverse momenta of 30 GeV which is slightly smaller compared with results from the Gyulassy-Levai-Vitev formalism. We demonstrate that the present microscopic transport description provides challenging means of investigating both jet-quenching and a strong buildup of elliptic flow in terms of the same standard perturbative QCD interactions.
We investigate the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the pion and kaon from the eigenstates of a light-front effective Hamiltonian in the constituent quark-antiquark representation suitable for low-momentum scale applications. By taking these scales as the only free parameters, the valence quark distribution functions of the pion, after QCD evolving, are consistent with the E615 experiment at Fermilab. In addition, the ratio of the up quark distribution in the kaon to that in the pion also agrees with the NA3 experimental result at CERN.
Multiple interactions of quarks and gluons in high-energy heavy-ion collisions may give rise to interesting phemomena of color charges propagating in high-density QCD matter. We study the dynamics of multi-parton systems produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions at energies corresponding the the CERN SPS and the future BNL RHIC experiments. Due to the complexity of the multi-particle dynamics we choose to employ the parton cascade model in order to simulate the development of multiple parton scatterings and associated stimulated emision processes. Our results indicate a non-linear increase with n…
This talk brings attention to what is knowable from perturbative QCD theory on two-parton distribution functions in the light of CDF measuruments of the inclusive cross section for double parton scattering.
We discuss a general diagrammatic description of n-point functions in the QCD instanton vacuum that resums planar diagrams, enforces gauge invariance and spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. We use these diagrammatic rules to derive the pion and kaon quasi-parton amplitude and distribution functions at leading order in the instanton packing fraction for large but finite momentum. The instanton and anti-instanton zero modes and non-zero modes are found to contribute to the quasi-distributions, but the latter are shown to drop out in the large momentum limit. The pertinent pion and kaon parton …
We consider bremsstrahlung energy loss for hard partons traversing a quark-gluon plasma. Accounting correctly for the probabilistic nature of the energy loss, and making a leading-order accurate treatment of bremsstrahlung, we find that the suppression of the spectrum is nearly flat, with the most suppression at energies $E \sim 30 T$ ($T$ the QGP temperature), in contrast to previous literature but in agreement with experimental data. This flat pattern should also be observed at the LHC.
Based on parametric reasoning, we provide a simple dynamical picture of how a perturbative parton cascade, in interaction with a QCD medium, fills phase space as a function of time.
We present the first direct calculation of the transversity parton distribution function within the nucleon from lattice QCD. The calculation is performed using simulations with the light quark mass fixed to its physical value and at one value of the lattice spacing. Novel elements of the calculations are non-perturbative renormalization and extraction of a formula for the matching to light-cone PDFs. Final results are presented in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme at a scale of $\sqrt{2}$ GeV.
We investigate the behavior of spin-dependent parton distribution functions (PDFs) at large parton momentum fractions x in the context of global QCD analysis. We explore the constraints from existing deep-inelastic scattering data, and from theoretical expectations for the leading x -> 1 behavior based on hard gluon exchange in perturbative QCD. Systematic uncertainties from the dependence of the PDFs on the choice of parametrization are studied by considering functional forms motivated by orbital angular momentum arguments. Finally, we quantify the reduction in the PDF uncertainties that may …
The dynamical parton distributions of the nucleon are generated radiatively from positive definite (valencelike) input distributions at an optimally chosen low resolution scale (Q_0^2 < 1 GeV^2). For the strange distribution in particular, it has been assumed that vanishing strange input distributions at this low scale is an appropriate choice. By confronting predictions derived from our (GJR08) NLO dynamical parton distributions with recent neutrino dimuon production measurement from NuTeV we show that this is indeed the case, and that little improvement is achieved by using a more general an…
We discuss the structure of infrared and ultraviolet singularities in on-shell QCD and supersymmetric QCD amplitudes at one-loop order. Previous results, valid for massless partons, are extended to the case of massive partons. Using dimensional regularization, we present a general factorization formula that controls both the singular epsilon-poles and the logarithmic contributions that become singular for vanishing masses. We introduce generalized Altarelli--Parisi splitting functions and discuss their relations with the singular terms in the amplitudes. The dependence on the regularization sc…
In the literature it is assumed that the parton to hadron fragmentation function cannot be studied by using the lattice QCD method because of the sum over the (unobserved) outgoing hadronic states. However, in this paper we find that since the hadron formation from the partons can be studied by using the lattice QCD method, the parton to hadron fragmentation function can be studied by using the lattice QCD method by using the LSZ reduction formula for the partonic processes.
We examine the role played in double parton interactions (DPI) by the parton--parton correlations originating from perturbative QCD parton splittings. Also presented are the results of the numerical analysis of the integrated DPI cross sections at Tevatron and LHC energies. To obtain the numerical results the knowledge of the single-parton GPDs gained by the HERA experiments was used to construct the non-perturbative input for generalized double parton distributions. The perturbative two-parton correlations induced by three-parton interactions contribute significantly to resolution of the long…
