Rho resonance, timelike pion form factor, and implications for lattice studies of the hadronic vacuum polarization

Abstract

We study isospin-1 P-wave $\pi\pi$ scattering in lattice QCD with two flavours of O($a$) improved Wilson fermions. For pion masses ranging from $m_\pi=265$ MeV to $m_\pi=437$ MeV, we determine the energy spectrum in the centre-of-mass frame and in three moving frames. We obtain the scattering phase shifts using L\"uscher's finite-volume quantisation condition. Fitting the dependence of the phase shifts on the scattering momentum to a Breit-Wigner form allows us to determine the resonance parameters $m_\rho$ and $g_{\rho\pi\pi}$. By combining the scattering phase shifts with the decay matrix element of the vector current, we calculate the timelike pion form factor, $F_\pi$, and compare the results to the Gounaris-Sakurai representation of the form factor in terms of the resonance parameters. In addition, we fit our data for the form factor to the functional form suggested by the Omn\`es representation, which allows for the extraction of the charge radius of the pion. As a further application, we discuss the long-distance behaviour of the vector correlator, which is dominated by the two-pion channel. We reconstruct the long-distance part in two ways: one based on the finite-volume energies and matrix elements and the other based on $F_\pi$. It is shown that this part can be accurately constrained using the reconstructions, which has important consequences for lattice calculations of the hadronic vacuum polarisation contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment.