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 states for not only spin triplet but also singlet channels are bounded. Furthermore the existence of the bound state is confirmed by investigating the properties of the energy for the first excited state obtained by 2x2 diagonalization method. The scattering lengths for both channels are evaluated by applying the finite volume formula derived by Luscher to the energy of the first excited states.
Results of a high-statistics, multi-volume Lattice QCD exploration of the deuteron, the di-neutron, the H-dibaryon, and the Xi-Xi- system at a pion mass of m ~ 390 MeV are presented. Calculations were performed with an anisotropic n_f = 2+1 Clover discretization in four lattice volumes of spatial extent L ~ 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 fm, with a lattice spacing of b_s ~ 0.123 fm in the spatial-direction, and b_t ~ b_s/3.5 in the time-direction. The Xi-Xi- is found to be bound by B_{Xi-Xi-} = 14.0(1.4)(6.7) MeV, consistent with expectations based upon phenomenological models and low-energy effective field theories constrained by nucleon-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon scattering data at the physical light-quark masses. We find weak evidence that both the deuteron and the di-neutron are bound at this pion mass, with binding energies of B_d = 11(05)(12) MeV and B_{nn} = 7.1(5.2)(7.3) MeV, respectively. With an increased number of measurements and a refined analysis, the binding energy of the H-dibaryon is B_H = 13.2(1.8)(4.0) MeV at this pion mass, updating our previous result.
We present a quenched lattice calculation of the weak nucleon form factors: vector (F_V(q^2)), induced tensor (F_T(q^2)), axial-vector (F_A(q^2)) and induced pseudo-scalar (F_P(q^2)) form factors. Our simulations are performed on three different lattice sizes L^3 x T=24^3 x 32, 16^3 x 32 and 12^3 x 32 with a lattice cutoff of 1/a = 1.3 GeV and light quark masses down to about 1/4 the strange quark mass (m_{pi} = 390 MeV) using a combination of the DBW2 gauge action and domain wall fermions. The physical volume of our largest lattice is about (3.6 fm)^3, where the finite volume effects on form factors become negligible and the lower momentum transfers (q^2 = 0.1 GeV^2) are accessible. The q^2-dependences of form factors in the low q^2 region are examined. It is found that the vector, induced tensor, axial-vector form factors are well described by the dipole form, while the induced pseudo-scalar form factor is consistent with pion-pole dominance. We obtain the ratio of axial to vector coupling g_A/g_V=F_A(0)/F_V(0)=1.219(38) and the pseudo-scalar coupling g_P=m_{mu}F_P(0.88m_{mu}^2)=8.15(54), where the errors are statistical erros only. These values agree with experimental values from neutron beta decay and muon capture on the proton. However, the root mean squared radii of the vector, induced tensor and axial-vector underestimate the known experimental values by about 20%. We also calculate the pseudo-scalar nucleon matrix element in order to verify the axial Ward-Takahashi identity in terms of the nucleon matrix elements, which may be called as the generalized Goldberger-Treiman relation.
We present a quenched lattice calculation of the nucleon isovector vector and axial-vector charges gV and gA. The chiral symmetry of domain wall fermions makes the calculation of the nucleon axial charge particularly easy since the Ward-Takahashi identity requires the vector and axial-vector currents to have the same renormalization, up to lattice spacing errors of order O(a^2). The DBW2 gauge action provides enhancement of the good chiral symmetry properties of domain wall fermions at larger lattice spacing than the conventional Wilson gauge action. Taking advantage of these methods and performing a high statistics simulation, we find a significant finite volume effect between the nucleon axial charges calculated on lattices with (1.2 fm)^3 and (2.4 fm)^3 volumes (with lattice spacing, a, of about 0.15 fm). On the large volume we find gA = 1.212 +/- 0.027(statistical error) +/- 0.024(normalization error). The quoted systematic error is the dominant (known) one, corresponding to current renormalization. We discuss other possible remaining sources of error. This theoretical first principles calculation, which does not yet include isospin breaking effects, yields a value of gA only a little bit below the experimental one, 1.2670 +/- 0.0030.
Quarkonium-nucleus systems are composed of two interacting hadronic states without common valence quarks, which interact primarily through multi-gluon exchanges, realizing a color van der Waals force. We present lattice QCD calculations of the interactions of strange and charm quarkonia with light nuclei. Both the strangeonium-nucleus and charmonium-nucleus systems are found to be relatively deeply bound when the masses of the three light quarks are set equal to that of the physical strange quark. Extrapolation of these results to the physical light-quark masses suggests that the binding energy of charmonium to nuclear matter is B < 40 MeV.
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.