Lattice QCD Calculations Research Articles

One-loop matching for gluon lattice TMDs

Transverse-momentum-dependent parton distributions (TMDs) can be calculated from first principles by computing a related set of Euclidean lattice observables and connecting them via a factorization formula. This work focuses on the leading-power factorization formula connecting the lattice quasi-TMD and continuum Collins TMD for gluons. We calculate the one-loop gluon matching coefficient, which is known to be independent of spin and exhibits no mixing with quarks. We demonstrate that this coefficient satisfies Casimir scaling with respect to the quark matching coefficient at one-loop order. Our result facilitates reliable lattice QCD calculations of gluon TMDs.

Transverse momentum structure of proton within the basis light-front quantization framework

We obtain the leading-twist valence quark transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution functions (TMD PDFs) for the proton within the basis light-front quantization (BLFQ) framework. Our results are consistent with lattice QCD calculations and our previous results for the collinear limit. We also obtain consistency with the Soffer-type bounds. Within our approach, we find that six T-even TMDs in the leading twist are all independent of each other, and previously found model-dependent relations do not hold. This is a promising sign that our results are representative of future, more extensive treatments of QCD. Furthermore, we obtain a non-trivial x-dependence of the 〈(p⊥)2〉 and some consistency with the Gaussian ansatz but only in the small (p⊥)2 region. Those features suggest our results may be a useful alternative in future experimental extractions.

Probing for the Trace Estimation of a Permuted Matrix Inverse Corresponding to a Lattice Displacement

Probing is a general technique that is used to reduce the variance of the Hutchinson stochastic estimator for the trace of the inverse of a large, sparse matrix $A$. The variance of the estimator is the sum of the squares of the off-diagonal elements of $A^{-1}$. Therefore, this technique computes probing vectors that when used in the estimator annihilate the largest off-diagonal elements. For matrices that display decay of the magnitude of $|A^{-1}_{ij}|$ with the graph distance between nodes $i$ and $j$, this is achieved through graph coloring of increasing powers $A^k$. Equivalently, when a matrix stems from a lattice discretization, it is computationally beneficial to find a distance-$k$ coloring of the lattice. Previously, a hierarchical coloring was proposed so that $k$ can be increased at runtime as needed without discarding previous work. In this work, we study probing for the more general problem of computing the trace of a permutation of $A^{-1}$, say $PA^{-1}$. The motivation comes from lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), where we need to construct “disconnected diagrams” to extract flavor-separated generalized parton functions. In lattice QCD, where the matrix has a four-dimensional toroidal lattice structure, these nonlocal operators correspond to a $PA^{-1}$, where $P$ is the permutation relating to some displacement $\vec{p}$ in one or more dimensions. We focus on a single dimension displacement ($p$), but our methods are general. We show that probing on $A^k$ or $(PA)^k$ does not annihilate the largest magnitude elements. To resolve this issue, our displacement-based probing works on $PA^k$ using a new coloring scheme that works directly on appropriately displaced neighborhoods on the lattice. We prove lower bounds on the number of colors needed and study the effect of this scheme on variance reduction, both theoretically and experimentally on a real-world lattice QCD calculation. We achieve orders of magnitude speedup over the unprobed or the naively probed methods.

Spectrum of light nuclei in a finite volume

Lattice quantum chromodynamics calculations of multi-baryon systems with physical quark masses would start a new age of ab initio predictions in nuclear physics. Performed on a finite grid, such calculations demand extrapolation of their finite volume numerical results to free-space physical quantities. Such extraction of the physical information can be carried out fitting effective field theories (EFTs) directly to the finite-volume results or utilizing the L\"uscher free-space formula or its generalizations for extrapolating the lattice data to infinite volume. To understand better the effect of periodic boundary conditions on the binding energy of few nucleon systems we explore here light nuclei with physical masses in a finite box and in free space. The stochastic variational method is used to solve the few-body systems. Substantial optimizations of the method are introduced to enable efficient calculations in a periodic box. With the optimized code, we perform accurate calculations of light nuclei $A \le 4$ within leading order pionless EFT. Using L\"uscher formula for the two-body system, and its generalization for 3- and 4-body systems, we examine the box effect and explore possible limitations of these formulas for the considered nuclear systems.

π−π scattering, QED, and finite-volume quantization

Using the Coulomb gauge formulation of QED we present a lattice QCD procedure to calculate the $\pi^+\pi^+$ scattering phase shift including the effects of the Coulomb potential which appears in this formulation. The approach described here incorporates the effects of relativity and avoids finite-volume corrections that vanish as a power of the volume in which the lattice calculation is performed. This is the first step in developing a complete lattice QCD calculation of the electromagnetic and isospin-breaking light-quark mass contributions to $\varepsilon'$, the parameter describing direct CP violating effects in $K_L\to\pi\pi$ decay.

Data-driven evaluations of Euclidean windows to scrutinize hadronic vacuum polarization

In this paper, we discuss how windows in Euclidean time can be used to isolate the origin of potential conflicts between evaluations of the hadronic-vacuum-polarization (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in lattice QCD and from e+e−→hadrons cross-section data. We provide phenomenological comparison numbers evaluated from e+e−→hadrons data for the window quantities most commonly studied in lattice QCD, complete with the correlations among them. We discuss and evaluate modifications of window parameters that could be useful in dissecting the energy dependence of tensions in the HVP integral and emphasize that further optimizations require a precise knowledge of the full covariance matrix in lattice-QCD calculations as well.

Status of Lattice QCD Determination of Nucleon Form Factors and Their Relevance for the Few-GeV Neutrino Program

Calculations of neutrino–nucleus cross sections begin with the neutrino–nucleon interaction, making the latter critically important to flagship neutrino oscillation experiments despite limited measurements with poor statistics. Alternatively, lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD) can be used to determine these interactions from the Standard Model with quantifiable theoretical uncertainties. Recent LQCD results of gA are in excellent agreement with data, and results for the (quasi-)elastic nucleon form factors with full uncertainty budgets are expected within a few years. We review the status of the field and LQCD results for the nucleon axial form factor, FA( Q2), a major source of uncertainty in modeling sub-GeV neutrino–nucleon interactions. Results from different LQCD calculations are consistent but collectively disagree with existing models, with potential implications for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. We describe a road map to solidify confidence in the LQCD results and discuss future calculations of more complicated processes, which are important to few-GeV neutrino oscillation experiments.

Light baryon spectroscopy

One of the unresolved questions in Hadron Physics comes from the field of Baryon Spectroscopy. Here, the exact interaction between the quarks inside the nucleons is investigated via measurement of the excitation spectrum of the nucleons. Comparison to constituent quark models as well as lattice QCD calculations reveal substantial differences is the number of observed states and in the mass hierarchy of the first excitations. This proceeding will give a short recap about the current developments in the field of Light Baryon Spectroscopy.

Properties of low-lying charmonia and bottomonia from lattice QCD + QED

The precision of lattice QCD calculations has been steadily improving for some time and is now approaching, or has surpassed, the 1% level for multiple quantities. At this level QED effects, i.e. the fact that quarks carry electric as well as color charge, come into play. In this report we will summarise results from the first lattice QCD+QED computations of the properties of ground-state charmonium and bottomonium mesons by the HPQCD Collaboration.

Dynamical mass generation in Minkowski space at QCD scale

We undertake the challenging task to reveal the properties of dressed light-quarks in the space- and time-like regions. For that aim, we solved the Dyson-Schwinger equation (DSE) in Minkowski space for the quark propagator in a QCD inspired model, focusing on the realization of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (DCSB) in the large coupling regime. The DSE is considered in the quenched approximation within the rainbow-ladder truncation with a massive gluon and a Pauli-Villars term, which is used to tune the infrared (IR) physics of the model. The solution of the DSE in Minkowski space is performed by resorting to the integral representation of the quark self-energy and propagator, which leads to a coupled set of closed self-consistent equations for the spectral densities, taking into account finite on-mass-shell renormalization. The parameters of the model are chosen such that the gluon mass scale is consistent with recent lattice QCD (LQCD) calculations, the Pauli-Villars mass is lowered down to about 1 GeV to concentrate strength in the infrared momentum region, and the coupling constant and renormalized mass are tuned to reproduce LQCD results for the quark mass function in the Landau gauge. Future application to study the pion consistently with DCSB within the Bethe-Salpeter framework with self-energies in Minkowski space is also delineated.

Cosmic QCD transition for large lepton flavor asymmetries

We study the impact of large lepton flavor asymmetries on the cosmic QCD transition. Scenarios of unequal lepton flavor asymmetries are observationally almost unconstrained and therefore open up a whole new parameter space for the cosmic QCD transition. We find that for large asymmetries, the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of pions can occur and identify the corresponding parameter space. In the vicinity of the QCD transition scale, we express the pressure in terms of a Taylor expansion with respect to the complete set of chemical potentials. The Taylor coefficients rely on input from lattice QCD calculations from the literature. The domain of applicability of this method is discussed.

Two-current transition amplitudes with two-body final states

We derive the on-shell form of amplitudes containing two external currents with a single hadron in the initial state and two hadrons in the final state, denoted as $1+\mathcal{J}\to 2+\mathcal{J}$. This class of amplitude is relevant in precision tests of the Standard Model as well as for exploring the structure of excited states in the QCD spectrum. We present a model-independent description of the amplitudes where we sum to all orders in the strong interaction. From this analytic form we are able to extract transition and elastic resonance form factors consistent with previous work as well as a novel Compton-like amplitude coupling a single particle state to a resonance. The results also hold for reactions where the one-particle state is replaced with the vacuum, namely $\mathcal{J}\to 2+\mathcal{J}$ amplitudes. We also investigate constraints placed upon the formalism for the case of a conserved vector current in the form of the Ward-Takahashi identity. The formalism presented here is valid for currents of arbitrary Lorentz structure and quantum numbers with spinless hadrons where any number of two-particle intermediate channels may be open. When combined with the appropriate finite-volume framework, this work facilitates the extraction of physical observables from this class of amplitudes via lattice QCD calculations.

Pion model with the Nakanishi integral representation

In the present work, we describe a model for the pion based on an analytic expression for the Bethe-Salpeter (BSA) amplitude, combined with some ingredients from Lattice QCD calculations. The running quark mass function M(p2), used here, reproduces well the results of Lattice QCD calculations. The analytical form of the running quark mass function contains a single time-like pole, which implies in time-like poles of the dressed quark propagator. Such a form allows to build the weight functions, Gi(γ, z), for the Nakanishi integral representation of each scalar function, χi(k, p), appearing in the decomposition of the Bethe-Salpeter amplitude in terms of Dirac operators. Such scalar amplitudes can also be used to obtain the pion valence light-front wave function.

Detailed analysis of excited-state systematics in a lattice QCD calculation of gA

Excited state contamination remains one of the most challenging sources of systematic uncertainty to control in lattice QCD calculations of nucleon matrix elements and form factors: early time separations are contaminated by excited states and late times suffer from an exponentially bad signal-to-noise problem. High-statistics calculations at large time separations $\gtrsim1$ fm are commonly used to combat these issues. In this work, focusing on $g_A$, we explore the alternative strategy of utilizing a large number of relatively low-statistics calculations at short to medium time separations (0.2--1 fm), combined with a multi-state analysis. On an ensemble with a pion mass of approximately 310 MeV and a lattice spacing of approximately 0.09 fm, we find this provides a more robust and economical method of quantifying and controlling the excited state systematic uncertainty. A quantitative separation of various types of excited states enables the identification of the transition matrix elements as the dominant contamination. The excited state contamination of the Feynman-Hellmann correlation function is found to reduce to the 1% level at approximately 1 fm while for the more standard three-point functions, this does not occur until after 2 fm. Critical to our findings is the use of a global minimization, rather than fixing the spectrum from the two-point functions and using them as input to the three-point analysis. We find that the ground state parameters determined in such a global analysis are stable against variations in the excited state model, the number of excited states, and the truncation of early-time or late-time numerical data.

Magnetic field induced corrections to the NJL model coupling constant from vacuum polarization

Magnetic field dependent corrections for the coupling constant of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model are calculated by considering the one-loop background field method. These coupling constants turn out to break chiral and flavor symmetries and they lead to a slight improvement of the numerical values of the up and down quark condensates when compared to results from lattice QCD. The corresponding magnetic field dependencies of the neutral pion and kaon masses are also presented and compared with available lattice QCD calculations. The resulting magnetic field correction to the $\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ mixing angle is also estimated.

Ruling out some predictions of deeply-bound light-heavy tetraquarks using lattice QCD

We discuss our lattice QCD calculations of a number of tetraquark channels with at least one heavy quark where some phenomenological models, already fully constrained by fits to the ordinary meson and baryon spectrum, predict deep binding. We find no evidence of deeply-bound tetraquarks, except in previously established strong-interaction stable $I=0$, $J^P=1^+$, $ud\bar{b}\bar{b}$ and $I=1/2$, $J^P=1^+$ $\ell s\bar{b}\bar{b}$ (where $\ell=u/d$) channels, allowing us to rule out models predicting deep binding. Preliminary results from an updated analysis of doubly-bottom tetraquarks are also presented.

First measurement of the Λ–Ξ interaction in proton–proton collisions at the LHC

The first experimental information on the strong interaction between Λ and Ξ− strange baryons is presented in this Letter. The correlation function of Λ–Ξ− and Λ‾–Ξ‾+ pairs produced in high-multiplicity proton–proton (pp) collisions at s=13 TeV at the LHC is measured as a function of the relative momentum of the pair. The femtoscopy method is used to calculate the correlation function, which is then compared with theoretical expectations obtained using a meson exchange model, chiral effective field theory, and Lattice QCD calculations close to the physical point. Data support predictions of small scattering parameters while discarding versions with large ones, thus suggesting a weak Λ–Ξ− interaction. The limited statistical significance of the data does not yet allow one to constrain the effects of coupled channels like Σ–Ξ and N–Ω.

New puzzle in charmonium decays * *Supported in part by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFA0406301) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (11961141012, 11835012, 11521505)

By analyzing existing data on pseudoscalar charmonium decays, we obtain the ratio of the branching fractions of and decays into ten different final states with light hadrons. For the first time, we test the two existing theoretical predictions of these decays and find that the experimental data are significantly different from both of them. The lack of observation of any decay mode with higher rate in than in decays suggests very unusual decay dynamics in pseudoscalar charmonium decays to be identified. We also report the first model-independent evaluation of the partial width of ( keV) and improve determination of that of ( keV). The latter shows a tension with the most recent lattice QCD calculation.

Extraction of low-energy constants of single- and double- β decays from lattice QCD: A sensitivity analysis

Lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD) has the promise of constraining low-energy constants (LECs) of nuclear effective field theories (EFTs) from first-principles calculations that incorporate the dynamics of quarks and gluons. Given the Euclidean and finite-volume nature of LQCD outputs, complex mappings are developed in recent years to obtain the Minkowski and infinite-volume counterparts of LQCD observables. In particular, as LQCD is moving toward computing a set of important few-nucleon matrix elements at the physical values of the quark masses, it is important to investigate whether the anticipated precision of LQCD spectra and matrix elements will be sufficient to guarantee tighter constraints on the relevant LECs than those already obtained from phenomenology, considering the nontrivial mappings involved. With a focus on the leading-order LECs of the pionless EFT, ${L}_{1,A}$ and ${g}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}^{NN}$, which parametrize, respectively, the strength of the isovector axial two-body current in a single-$\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay (and other related processes such $pp$ fusion), and of the isotensor contact two-body operator in the neutrinoless double-$\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay within the light neutrino exchange scenario, the expected uncertainty on future extractions of ${L}_{1,A}$ and ${g}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}^{NN}$ are examined using synthetic data at the physical values of the quark masses. It is observed that achieving small uncertainties in ${L}_{1,A}$ will be challenging, and (sub)percent-level precision in the two-nucleon spectra and matrix elements is essential in reducing the uncertainty on this LEC compared to the existing constraints. On the other hand, the short-distance coupling of the neutrinoless double-$\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay, ${g}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}^{NN}$, is shown to be less sensitive to uncertainties on both LQCD energies and the matrix element, and can likely be constrained with percent-level precision in the upcoming LQCD calculations.

Lattice QCD Calculation of the Two-Photon Exchange Contribution to the Muonic-Hydrogen Lamb Shift.

We develop a method for lattice QCD calculation of the two-photon exchange contribution to the muonic-hydrogen Lamb shift. To demonstrate its feasibility, we present the first lattice calculation with a gauge ensemble at m_{π}=142 MeV. By adopting the infinite-volume reconstruction method along with an optimized subtraction scheme, we obtain with statistical uncertainty ΔE_{TPE}=-28.9(4.9) μeV+93.72 μeV/fm^{2}·⟨r_{p}^{2}⟩, or ΔE_{TPE}=37.4(4.9) μeV, which is consistent with the previous theoretical results in a range of 20-50 μeV.