Invited review article for the EPJA special issue "Lattice Field Theory during the COVID-19 pandemic" in replacement of a plenary talk at the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2020). Matching version accepted for publication in EPJA. (27 pages, 26 figures)
Excited state contributions represent a formidable challenge for hadron structure calculations in lattice QCD. For physical systems that exhibit an exponential signal-to-noise problem they often hinder the extraction of ground state matrix elements, introducing a major source of systematic error in lattice calculations of such quantities. The development of methods to treat the contribution of excited states and the current status of related lattice studies are reviewed with focus on nucleon structure calculations that are notoriously affected by excited state contamination.
We present preliminary results from the first attempt to reconstruct the spectral function in the nucleon and $Δ$ channels from lattice QCD data using the maximum entropy method (MEM). An advantage of the MEM analysis is to enable us to access information of the excited state spectrum. Performing simulations on two lattice volumes, we confirm the large finite size effect on the first excited nucleon state in the lighter quark mass region.
We present updated preliminary results for the nucleon electromagnetic form factors for non-perturbatively $\mathcal{O}(a)$ improved Wilson fermions in $N_f=2$ QCD measured on the CLS ensembles. The use of the summed operator insertion method allows us to suppress the influence of excited states in our measurements. A study of the effect that excited state contaminations have on the $Q^2$ dependence of the extracted nucleon form factors may then be made through comparisons of the summation method to standard plateau fits, as well as to excited state fits.
We perform a high-statistics precision calculation of nucleon matrix elements using an open sink method allowing us to explore a wide range of sink-source time separations. In this way the influence of excited states of nucleon matrix elements can be studied. As particular examples we present results for the nucleon axial charge $g_A$ and for the first moment of the isovector unpolarized parton distribution $<x>_{u-d}$. In addition, we report on preliminary results using the generalized eigenvalue method for nucleon matrix elements. All calculations are performed using $N_f=2+1+1$ maximally tw…
We discuss a robust projection method for the extraction of excited-state masses of the nucleon from a matrix of correlation functions. To illustrate the algorithm in practice, we present results for the positive parity excited states of the nucleon in quenched QCD. Using eigenvectors obtained via the variational method, we construct an eigenstate-projected correlation function amenable to standard analysis techniques. The method displays its utility when comparing results from the fit of the projected correlation function with those obtained from the eigenvalues of the variational method. Sta…
We study the ability of a variety of fitting techniques to extract the ground state matrix elements of the vector current from ratios of nucleon three- and two-point functions that contain contaminations from excited states. Extending our high-statistics study of nucleon form factors, we are able to demonstrate that the treatment of excited-state contributions in conjunction with approaching the physical pion mass has a significant impact on the $Q^2$-dependence of the form factors.
We study excited states of the nucleon in quenched lattice QCD with the spectral analysis using the maximum entropy method. Our simulations are performed on three lattice sizes $16^3\times 32$, $24^3\times 32$ and $32^3\times 32$, at $β=6.0$ to address the finite volume issue. We find a significant finite volume effect on the mass of the Roper resonance for light quark masses. After removing this systematic error, its mass becomes considerably reduced toward the direction to solve the level order puzzle between the Roper resonance $N'(1440)$ and the negative-parity nucleon $N^*(1535)$.
We employ a novel method to analyze Euclidean correlation functions entering the calculation of hadron energies in lattice QCD. The method is based on the sampling of all possible solutions allowed by the spectral decomposition of the hadron correlators. We demonstrate the applicability of the method by studying the nucleon excited states in the positive and negative parity channels over a pion mass range of about 400~MeV to 150~MeV. The results are compared to the standard variational approach routinely used to study excited states within lattice QCD. The main advantage of our new approach is…
Among the sources of systematic error in nucleon structure calculations is contamination from unwanted excited states. In order to measure this systematic error, we vary the operator insertion time and source-sink separation independently. We compute observables for three source-sink separations between 0.93 fm and 1.39 fm using clover-improved Wilson fermions and pion masses as low as 150 MeV. We explore the use of a two-state model fit to subtract off the contribution from excited states.
We present a dedicated analysis of the influence of excited states on the calculation of nucleon matrix elements. This calculation is performed at a fixed value of the lattice spacing, volume and pion mass that are typical of contemporary lattice computations. We focus on the nucleon axial charge, g_A, for which we use about 7,500 measurements, and on the average momentum of the unpolarized isovector parton distribution, <x>_{u-d}, for which we use about 23,000 measurements. All computations are done employing N_f=2+1+1 maximally-twisted-mass Wilson fermions and using non-perturbatively calcul…
The energies of the excited states of the Nucleon, Delta and Omega are computed in lattice QCD, using two light quarks and one strange quark on anisotropic lattices. The calculations are performed at three values of the pion mass: 392(4), 438(3) and 521(3) MeV. We employ the variational method with a basis of about ten interpolating operators enabling six energies to be distinguished clearly in each irreducible representation of the octahedral group. We compare our calculations of nucleon excited states with the low-lying experimental spectrum. There is reasonable agreement for the pattern of …
We compute the spectrum of excited nucleons using the anisotropic Wilson lattice with two flavors of dynamical fermions. Using optimized sets of operators which transform irreducibly under the octahedral group, matrices of correlation functions are computed. We apply the variational method to these matrices to extract excited energy eigenstates. We obtain several states for each irrep and identify the continuum spin for the lowest-lying states, including a $J^P={5/2}^-$ state.
One of the most challenging tasks in lattice calculations of baryon form factors is the analysis and control of excited-state contaminations. Taking the isovector axial form factors of the nucleon as an example, both a dispersive representation and a calculation in chiral effective field theory show that the excited-state contributions become dominant at fixed source-sink separation when the axial current is spatially distant from the nucleon source location. We address this effect with a new method in which the axial current is localized by a Gaussian wave-packet and apply it on a CLS ensembl…
Excited-state contamination is one of the dominant uncertainties in lattice calculations of the nucleon axial-charge, $g_A$. Recently published results in leading-order chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) predict the excited-state contamination to be independent of the nucleon interpolator and positive. However, empirical results from numerical lattice calculations show negative contamination (downward curvature), indicating that present-day calculations are not in the regime where the leading-order ChPT predictions apply. In this paper we show that, under plausible assumptions, one can reproduc…
We present progress made by the Hadron Spectrum Collaboration (HSC) in determining the tower of excited nucleon states using 2+1-flavor anisotropic clover lattices. The HSC has been investigating interpolating operators projected into irreducible representations of the cubic group in order to better calculate two-point correlators for nucleon spectroscopy; results are published for quenched and 2-flavor anisotropic Wilson lattices. In this work, we present the latest results using a new technique, distillation, which allows us to reach higher statistics than before. Future directions will be o…
A novel method for the precise identification and determination of the energies that contribute in the spectral decomposition of lattice correlators is presented. The method is based on statistical concepts and it relies heavily on simulation techniques. The $η_c$ correlator is analyzed within this method and the results obtained are compared to a previous analysis based on Bayesian statistics. An analysis of the nucleon local two-point correlators leads to the identification of the excited states in the positive and negative channels. A discussion on the Roper is included.
We apply the eigenvectors from a variational analysis to successfully extract the wave functions of even-parity excited states of the nucleon, including the Roper. We explore the first four states in the spectrum excited by the standard nucleon interpolating field. We find that the states exhibit a structure qualitatively consistent with a constituent quark model, where the ground, first-, second- and third-excited states have 0, 1, 2, and 3 nodes in the radial wave function of the d-quark about two $u$ quarks at the origin. Moreover the radial amplitude of the probability distribution is simi…
We present a detailed analysis of methods to reduce statistical errors and excited-state contamination in the calculation of matrix elements of quark bilinear operators in nucleon states. All the calculations were done on a 2+1 flavor ensemble with lattices of size $32^3 \times 64$ generated using the rational hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm at $a=0.081$~fm and with $M_π=312$ MeV. The statistical precision of the data is improved using the all-mode-averaging method. We compare two methods for reducing excited-state contamination: a variational analysis and a two-state fit to data at multiple valu…
Recent developments on the determination of the spin-1/2 spectrum of the nucleon in full QCD are presented. Our focus is on the PACS-CS 2+1 flavor configurations made available through the ILDG. Using correlation matrix techniques, in which a wide variety of gauge-invariant Gaussian-smeared fermion-propagator sources and sinks are considered, excited states are determined. We consider several correlation matrices of various sizes, each constructed with a different set of basis interpolators, in order to demonstrate the invariance of the eigenstates on the basis choice. Of particular interest i…
It would be very useful to find a way of reducing excited-state effects in lattice QCD calculations of nucleon structure that has a low computational cost. We explore the use of hybrid interpolators, which contain a nontrivial gluonic excitation, in a variational basis together with the standard interpolator with tuned smearing width. Using the clover discretization of the field strength tensor, a calculation using a fixed linear combination of standard and hybrid interpolators can be done using the same number of quark propagators as a standard calculation, making this a cost-effective option…
Variational analysis techniques in lattice QCD are powerful tools that give access to the excited state spectrum of QCD. At zero momentum, these techniques are well established and can cleanly isolate energy eigenstates of either positive or negative parity. In order to compute the form factors of a single energy eigenstate, we must perform a variational analysis at non-zero momentum. When we do this with baryons, we run into issues with parity mixing, as boosted baryons are not eigenstates of parity. The parity-expanded variational analysis (PEVA) technique is a novel method for ensuring the …
Positive-parity spin-1/2 excitations of the nucleon are explored in lattice QCD. The variational method is used in this investigation and several correlation matrices are employed. As our focus is on the utility and methodology of the variational approach, we work in the quenched approximation to QCD. Various sweeps of Gaussian fermion-field smearing is applied at the source and at the sink of $χ_{1}\barχ_{1}$ and $χ_{1}χ_{2}$ correlation functions to obtain a large basis of operators. Using several different approaches for constructing basis interpolators, we demonstrate how improving the bas…
We discuss the extraction of negative-parity baryon masses from lattice QCD calculations. The mass of the lowest-lying negative-parity $J = 1/2^{-}$ state is computed in quenched lattice QCD using an ${\cal O}(a)$-improved clover fermion action, and a splitting found with the nucleon mass. The calculation is performed on two lattice volumes, and three lattice spacings enabling a study of both finite-volume and finite-lattice-spacing uncertainties. A measurement of the first excited radial excitation of the nucleon finds a mass considerably larger than that of the negative-parity ground state, …
Highly excited states for isospin 1/2 baryons are calculated for the first time using lattice QCD with two flavors of dynamical quarks. Anisotropic lattices are used with two pion masses: 416(36) MeV and 578(29) MeV. The lowest four energies are reported in each of the six irreducible representations of the octahedral group at each pion mass. The lattices used have dimensions 24^3x64, spatial lattice spacing a_s = 0.11 fm and temporal lattice spacing a_t = 1/3 a_s. Clear evidence is found for a 5/2^-state in the pattern of negative-parity excited states. This agrees with the pattern of physica…
Techniques to compute hadron properties from lattice QCD rely upon the limit of long time separation. For baryons, the signal-to-noise problem often restricts one to time separations that are not ideally long, and for which couplings to excited states can obstruct the isolation of ground-state baryon properties. We consider excited-state contamination in nucleon two- and three-point functions. Using chiral perturbation theory, we determine couplings to pion-nucleon and pion-delta excited states. In two-point functions, these contributions are small, in accordance with general properties of the…
We present an overview of the correlation-matrix methods developed recently by the CSSM Lattice Collaboration for the isolation of excited states of the nucleon. Of particular interest is the first positive-parity excited-state of the nucleon known as the Roper resonance. Using eigenvectors of the correlation matrix we construct parity and eigenstate projected correlation functions which are analysed using standardized methods. The robust nature of this approach for extracting the eigenstate energies is presented. We report the importance of using a variety of source and sink smearings in achi…
We present preliminary results for the mass spectrum of the nucleon and its low-lying excited states from quenched lattice QCD using the domain wall fermion method which preserves the chiral symmetry at finite lattice cutoff. Definite mass splitting is observed between the nucleon and its parity partner. This splitting grows with decreasing valence quark mass. We also present preliminary data regarding the first positive-parity excited state.
We compare axial charges of excited nucleons, as predicted by the chiral symmetry restoration picture, with the traditional, moderately successful for the ground-state baryons SU(6) symmetry. The axial charges of excited nucleons can (and will) be measured in lattice QCD simulations, and comparison of the lattice results with the two different symmetry schemes will give an insight on the origins of the excited hadron masses as well as on interrelations of chiral symmetry and confinement.
We discuss the status of current dynamical lattice QCD simulations in connection to the emerging results on the strange and charmed baryon spectrum, excited states of the nucleon and the investigation of the structure of scalar mesons.
The RQCD collaboration proposed a projection method to remove the excited state contamination in lattice OCD calculations of nuclear form factors. The effectiveness of this method in removing the two-particle nucleon-pion-state contamination is examined using chiral perturbation theory. It is shown that the projection method has practically no impact in the calculation of the axial and induced pseudoscalar form factors. In the pseudoscalar form factor the projection method strongly enhances the nucleon-pion-state contamination. The generalized Goldberger-Treiman relation is satisfied even thou…
We study the pion-nucleon system in s-wave in the framework of lattice QCD in order to gain new information on the nucleon excited states. We perform simulations for $n_f =2$ mass degenerate light quarks at a pion mass of 266 MeV. The results show that including the two-particle states drastically changes the energy levels. The variational analysis and the distillation approach play an important role in the extraction of the energy levels. The phase shift analysis allows to extract information on the resonance nature of the observed states.
We present results of our numerical calculation of the mass spectrum for isospin one-half and spin one-half non-strange baryons, i.e. the ground and excited states of the nucleon, in quenched lattice QCD. We use a new lattice discretization scheme for fermions, domain wall fermions, which possess almost exact chiral symmetry at non-zero lattice spacing. We make a systematic investigation of the negative-parity $N^*$ spectrum by using two distinct interpolating operators at $β=6/g^2=6.0$ on a $16^3 \times 32 \times 16$ lattice. The mass estimates extracted from the two operators are consistent …
We investigate the excited states of the nucleon using $N_f=2$ twisted mass gauge configurations with pion masses in the range of about 270 MeV to 450 MeV and one ensemble of $N_f=2$ Clover fermions at almost physical pion mass. We use two different sets of variational bases and study the resulting generalized eigenvalue problem. We present results for the two lowest positive and negative parity states.
The $Nπ$-state contribution to nucleon 3-pt functions involving the pseudoscalar density $P(x)$ and the time component $A_4(x)$ of the axial vector current are computed to LO in ChPT. In case of the latter the $Nπ$ contribution is O($M_N$) enhanced compared to the single-nucleon ground state contribution. In addition, a relative sign in two terms of the $Nπ$ contribution leads an almost linear dependence on the operator insertion time, as it is observed in lattice data. In case of the pseudoscalar density the $Nπ$ contribution is strongly dependent on the momentum transfer, leading to a distor…
We investigate excited state contaminations in a direct computation of the nucleon $σ$-terms. This is an important source of systematic effects that needs to be controlled besides the light quark mass dependence and lattice artefacts. We use maximally twisted mass fermions with dynamical light ($u$,$d$), strange and charm degrees of freedom. Employing an efficient stochastic evaluation of the disconnected contribution available for twisted mass fermions, we show that the effect of excited states is large in particular for the strange $σ$-terms, where it can be as big as $O(\gtrsim 40%$). This …
We study positive and negative parity nucleons on the lattice using the chirally improved lattice Dirac operator. Our analysis is based on a set of three operators chi_i with the nucleon quantum numbers but in different representations of the chiral group and with different diquark content. We use a variational method to separate ground state and excited states and determine the mixing coefficients for the optimal nucleon operators in terms of the chi_i. We clearly identify the negative parity resonances N(1535) and N(1650) and their masses agree well with experimental data. The mass of the ob…
We present preliminary results on the axial form factor $G_A(Q^2)$ and the induced pseudoscalar form factor $G_P(Q^2)$ of the nucleon. A systematic analysis of the excited-state contributions to form factors is performed on the CLS ensemble `N6' with $m_π= 340 \ \text{MeV}$ and lattice spacing $a \sim 0.05 \ \text{fm}$. The relevant three-point functions were computed with source-sink separations ranging from $t_s \sim 0.6 \ \text{fm}$ to $t_s \sim \ 1.4 \ \text{fm}$. We observe that the form factors suffer from non-trivial excited-state contributions at the source-sink separations available t…
We report on our preliminary results on the low-lying excited nucleon spectra which we obtain through a variational basis formed with three different interpolators.
We investigate the finite size effect on masses of excited baryons in quenched lattice QCD simulation. For this purpose, we perform numerical simulations at three different lattice sizes, La\simeq 1.6, 2.2 and 3.2 fm. The gauge configurations are generated with the single plaquette gauge action at β=6/g^2=6.2, and the quark propagator are computed with the Wilson fermion action. To access to two parity states of the nucleon and four different spin-parity states of the Δbaryon, the appropriate spin/parity projection are carried out. We find that the spatial lattice size is required to be as lar…
We study the mass spectra of excited baryons with the use of the lattice QCD simulations. We focus our attention on the problem of the level ordering between the positive-parity excited state N'(1440) (the Roper resonance) and the negative-parity excited state N^*(1535). Nearly perfect parity projection is accomplished by combining the quark propagators with periodic and anti-periodic boundary conditions in the temporal direction. Then we extract the spectral functions from the lattice data by utilizing the maximum entropy method. We observe that the masses of the N' and N^* states are close f…
We calculate the disconnected contribution to isoscalar nucleon charges for scalar, axial and tensor channels of light and strange quarks. The calculation has been done with the Clover valence quarks on the MILC $N_f=2+1+1$ HISQ lattices whose light quark masses corresponding to the pion masses of 305 MeV and 217 MeV at $a \approx 0.12$ fm and 312 MeV at $a \approx 0.09$ fm. All-mode-averaging technique is used for the evaluation two-point functions. Disconnected quark loops are estimated by using the truncated solver method with Gaussian random noise sources. Contamination from the excited st…
We report on an analysis of the average quark momentum fraction of the nucleon and related quantities using $N_\mathrm{f}=2+1$ Wilson fermions. Computations are performed on four CLS ensembles covering three values of the lattice spacing at pion masses down to $M_π\approx 200\,\mathrm{MeV}$. Several source-sink separations ($\sim 1.0\,\mathrm{fm}$ to $\sim 1.4\,\mathrm{fm}$) are used to assess the excited-state contamination. To gain further insight, the generalized pencil-of-functions approach has been implemented to reduce the excited-state contamination in the relevant two- and three-point …
The energies of the excited states of the Nucleon, $Δ$ and $Ω$ are computed in lattice QCD, using two light quarks and one strange quark on anisotropic lattices. The calculation is performed at three values of the light quark mass, corresponding to pion masses $m_π$ = 392(4), 438(3) and 521(3) MeV. We employ the variational method with a large basis of interpolating operators enabling six energies in each irreducible representation of the lattice to be distinguished clearly. We compare our calculation with the low-lying experimental spectrum, with which we find reasonable agreement in the patt…
Masses of positive and negative parity excited nucleons and hyperons are calculated in quenched lattice QCD using an O(a^2) improved gluon action and a fat-link clover fermion action in which only the irrelevant operators are constructed with fat links. The results are in agreement with earlier N* simulations with improved actions, and exhibit a clear mass splitting between the nucleon and its parity partner, as well as a small mass splitting between the two low-lying J^P={1/2}^- N* states. Study of different Lambda interpolating fields suggests a similar splitting between the lowest two {1/2}…
High statistics results for the isovector momentum fraction, $\langle x \rangle_{u-d}$, helicity moment, $\langle x \rangle_{Δu-Δd}$, and the transversity moment, $\langle x\rangle_{δu-δd}$, of the nucleon are presented using seven ensembles of gauge configurations generated by the JLab/W&M/LANL/MIT collaborations using $2+1$-flavors of dynamical Wilson-clover quarks. Attention is given to understanding and controlling the contributions of excited states. The final results are obtained using a simultaneous fit in the lattice spacing $a$, pion mass $M_π$ and the finite volume parameter $M_πL$ k…
We determine generalized form factors of the nucleon from lattice simulations with $N_f = 2$ mass-degenerate non-perturbatively improved Wilson-Sheikholeslami-Wohlert fermions down to a pion mass of 150 MeV. We also present the resulting isovector quark angular momentum. Possible excited-state contaminations are investigated with correlated simultaneous fits.
A review of recent lattice calculations of nucleon structure and matrix elements of operators in nucleons is presented. It primarily covers developments in the calculation of the matrix elements of the scalar, tensor, pseudo-scalar, axial-vector and vector operators in the ground state of neutrons and protons in the isospin symmetric limit. Some preliminary calculations of the electric dipole moment, the gravitational moments and stress-energy distribution, and the magnetic polarizability are briefly described.
We address the issue of bound state in the two-nucleon system in lattice QCD. Our study is made in the quenched approximation at the lattice spacing of a = 0.128 fm with a heavy quark mass corresponding to m_pi = 0.8 GeV. To distinguish a bound state from an attractive scattering state, we investigate the volume dependence of the energy difference between the ground state and the free two-nucleon state by changing the spatial extent of the lattice from 3.1 fm to 12.3 fm. A finite energy difference left in the infinite spatial volume limit leads us to the conclusion that the measured ground sta…
We investigate the application of the distillation smearing approach, and the use of the variational method with an extended basis of operators facilitated by this approach, on the calculation of the nucleon isovector charges $g_S^{u-d}$, $g_A^{u-d}$, and $g_T^{u-d}$. We find that the better sampling of the lattice enabled through the use of distillation yields a substantial reduction in the statistical uncertainty in comparison with the use of alternative smearing methods, and furthermore, appears to offer better control over the contribution of excited-states compared to use of a single, loc…
We report lattice QCD results on the axial charges of ground and excited nucleon states of both parities. This is the first study of these quantities with approximately chiral (CI) fermions. Two energy levels in the range of the negative parity resonances N*(1535) and N*(1650) are observed and we determine the axial charge for both. We obtain a small axial charge for one of them, which is consistent with the chiral symmetry restoration in this state as well as with the small axial charge of the N*(1535) predicted within the quark model. This result agrees with the findings of Takahashi et al. …
Preliminary results are presented in our program to calculate low moments of structure functions for the proton and neutron on a $24^3\times32$ lattice at $β=6.2$. A comparison is made for a variety of smeared nucleon sources and preliminary results for the calculation of the nucleon tensor charge are presented.
We review recent progress on lattice calculations of nucleon spin structure, including the parton distribution functions, form factors, generalization parton distributions, and recent developments in lattice techniques.
The nucleon-pion-state contributions to QCD 2- and 3-point functions used in the calculation of the nucleon axial charge are studied in chiral perturbation theory. For sufficiently small quark masses and large volumes the nucleon-pion states are expected to have smaller total energy than the single-particle excited states. To leading order in chiral perturbation theory the results do not depend on low-energy constants associated with the interpolating nucleon fields and apply to local as well as smeared interpolators. The nucleon-pion-state contribution is found to be at the few percent level.
This talk presents recent calculations in full QCD of the lowest three moments of generalized parton distributions and the insight they provide into the behavior of nucleon electromagnetic form factors, the origin of the nucleon spin, and the transverse structure of the nucleon. In addition, new exploratory calculations in the chiral regime of full QCD are discussed.
The exponentially falling signal-to-noise ratio in all nucleon correlation functions, and the presence of towers of multihadron excited states with relatively small mass gaps makes extraction of matrix elements of various operators within the ground state nucleon challenging. Theoretically, the allowed positive parity states with the smallest mass gaps are the $N(\bm p)π(-\bm p)$, $N(\bm 0)π(\bm 0)π(\bm 0)$, $N(\bm p)π(\bm 0)$, $N(\bm 0)π(\bm p),\ \ldots$, states. A priori, the contribution of these states arises at one loop in chiral perturbation theory ($χ$PT), however, in many cases the con…
We present updated results for the nucleon axial charge and electromagnetic (EM) form factors, which include a significant increase in statistics for all ensembles (up to 4000 measurements), as well as the addition of ensembles with pion masses down to $m_π\sim195$ MeV. We also present results for the average quark momentum fraction. The new data allows us to perform a thorough study of the systematic effects encountered in the lattice extraction. We concentrate on systematic effects due to excited-state contaminations for each of the quantities, which we check using several different time sep…
