9 pages, 5 figures. Talk presented at the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2021), 26-30 July, 2021, Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology
We report a first principle lattice calculation of the pion electric polarizability $α_π$ at the physical pion mass. First, we derive the master formula, which relates the pion polarizabilities with the position space hadronic Compton tensor, $\langle π| J_μ(x) J_ν(0) | π\rangle$. The finite volume error of the master formula is exponentially suppressed by the spatial extent of the lattice. Then, the hadronic tensor is calculated using domain wall fermions (DWF) directly at physical pion mass. The gauge ensembles are generated by the RBC-UKQCD collaborations.
Knowledge of the electric polarizability is crucial to understanding the interactions of hadrons with electromagnetic fields. The neutron polarizability is very sensitive to the quark mass and is expected to diverge in the chiral limit. Here we present results for the electric polarizability of the neutron, neutral pion, and neutral kaon on eight ensembles with nHYP-smeared clover dynamical fermions with two different pion masses (227 and 306 MeV). These are currently the lightest pion masses used in polarizability studies. For each pion mass we compute the polarizability at four different vol…
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…
As part of our ongoing lattice study of the electric polarizabilities of hadrons using the background field approach, we use reweighting to examine the effect of the field on the sea quarks. As with other reweighting studies, the chief difficulty lies in the construction of a stochastic estimate of the ratio of the fermion determinants. In contrast to the case of reweighting in the quark mass, these estimators converge extremely slowly, and are resistant to common variance-reduction techniques such as low-mode subtraction. However, it is possible to construct an alternate estimator, taking adv…
We present the results of a reweighting calculation to compute the contribution of the charged quark sea to the neutron electric polarizability. The chief difficulty is the stochastic estimation of weight factors, and we present a hopping parameter expansion-based technique for reducing the stochastic noise, along with a discussion of why this particular reweighting is so difficult. We used this technique to estimate weight factors for 300 configurations of nHYP-clover fermions and compute the neutron polarizability, but the reweighting greatly inflates the overall statistical error, driven by…
Electromagnetic polarizabilities are important parameters for understanding the interaction between photons and hadrons. For pions these quantities are poorly constrained experimentally since they can only be measured indirectly. New experiments at CERN and Jefferson Lab are planned that will measure the polarizabilities more precisely. Lattice QCD can be used to compute these quantities directly in terms of quark and gluons degrees of freedom, using the background field method. We present results for the electric polarizability for two different quark masses, light enough to connect to chiral…
Charged and neutral, pion and kaon electric polarizabilities are extracted from lattice QCD using an ensemble of anisotropic gauge configurations with dynamical clover fermions. We utilize classical background fields to access the polarizabilities from two-point correlation functions. Uniform background fields are achieved by quantizing the electric field strength with the proper treatment of boundary flux. These external fields, however, are implemented only in the valence quark sector. A novel method to extract charge particle polarizabilities is successfully demonstrated for the first time.
We show how to compute electromagnetic polarizabilities of charged hadrons without the use of background fields in lattice QCD. The low-energy behavior of the Compton scattering amplitude is matched to matrix elements of current-current correlation functions on the lattice. Working in momentum space, formulas for electric polarizability ($α_E$) and magnetic polarizability ($β_M$) are derived for both charged pion and proton. Lattice four-point correlation functions are constructed from quark and gluon fields to be used in Monte-Carlo simulations. We also draw attention to the potential of four…
Nucleon properties are investigated in background electric fields. As the magnetic moments of baryons affect their relativistic propagation in constant electric fields, electric polarizabilities cannot be determined without knowledge of magnetic moments. This is analogous to the experimental situation, for which determination of polarizabilities from the Compton amplitude requires subtraction of Born terms. With the background field method, we devise combinations of nucleon correlation functions in constant electric fields that isolate magnetic moments and electric polarizabilities. Using an e…
The response of hadrons to electromagnetic probes is highly constrained by chiral dynamics; but, in some cases, predictions have not compared well with experimental data. The lattice can be used to test the chiral electromagnetism of hadrons and ultimately confront experiment. We use background field techniques to study the electromagnetic polarizabilities of hadrons. Focusing on simulations in background electric fields, we present preliminary results for both charged and neutral particle polarizabilities. The former are extracted using a novel method.
Direct evaluation of charged particle polarizabilities on the lattice is quite difficult. However, a short cut for charged pion polarizability - the Das, Mathur, Okubo Sum Rule - can readily be calculated using lattice techniques. A phenomenological model has been developed to fit the time behavior of the propagators in this expression. Numerical systematics are discussed and some preliminary results are presented.
Electromagnetic properties of the nucleon are explored with lattice QCD using a novel technique. Focusing on background electric fields, we show how the electric polarizability can be extracted from nucleon correlation functions. A crucial step concerns addressing contributions from the magnetic moment, which affects the relativistic propagation of nucleons in electric fields. By properly handing these contributions, we can determine both magnetic moments and electric polarizabilities. Lattice results from anisotropic clover lattices are presented. Our method is not limited to the neutron; we …
Formulas are developed for use in lattice studies of charged hadron polarizabilities. In particular, the valence quark different-flavor component of the charged pion polarizability is examined on a $16^{3}\times 24$ lattice at $β=6.0$ using Wilson fermions. Using the elastic limit results of Part I of this series, it is concluded that this represents a small negative component of the full charged polarizabilty.
Chiral perturbation theory makes definitive predictions for the extrinsic behavior of hadrons in external electric and magnetic fields. Near the chiral limit, the electric and magnetic polarizabilities of pions, kaons, and nucleons are determined in terms of a few well-known parameters. In this limit, hadrons become quantum mechanically diffuse as polarizabilities scale with the inverse square-root of the quark mass. In some cases, however, such predictions from chiral perturbation theory have not compared well with experimental data. Ultimately we must turn to first principles numerical simul…
Chiral dynamics makes definitive predictions for the electromagnetic polarizabilities of hadrons near the chiral limit; but, agreement with experiment is tenuous in some cases. We provide an overview of lattice QCD methods to compute the electric and magnetic polarizabilities of hadrons. Central to these methods is the lattice simulation of quarks in uniform, classical electromagnetic fields. A long-term goal is the determination of polarizabilities directly from lattice computations, however, in the near term, one may need to rely on partially quenched chiral perturbation theory. Nonetheless …
We show how to compute electromagnetic polarizabilities of charged hadrons using four-point functions in lattice QCD. The low-energy behavior of Compton scattering amplitude is matched to matrix elements of current-current correlation functions on the lattice. Working in momentum space, formulas for electric polarizability ($α_E$) and magnetic polarizability ($β_M$) are derived for both charged pion and proton. Lattice four-point correlation functions are constructed from quark and gluon fields to be used in Monte-Carlo simulations. The content of the functions is assessed in detail and specif…
The difference between the electromagnetic self-energies of proton and neutron can be calculated with the Cottingham formula, which expresses the self-energies as an integral over the electroproduction cross sections---provided the nucleon matrix elements of the current commutator do not contain a fixed pole. We show that, under the same proviso, the subtraction function occurring in the dispersive representation of the virtual Compton forward scattering amplitude is determined by the cross sections. The representation in particular leads to a parameter-free sum rule for the nucleon polarizabi…
We compute finite volume effects relevant for lattice QCD simulations using background fields. Focusing on constant electric and magnetic fields on a periodic lattice, we determine volume corrections to pion two-point functions using chiral perturbation theory. Among such corrections are the finite volume shifts to the electric and magnetic polarizabilities, which are numerically shown to be non-negligible. We additionally find that all terms in the single-particle effective action can be renormalized by infrared effects. This includes Born couplings to the pion current and total charge-square…
