No Arabic abstract
Over the past few years new physics methods and algorithms as well as the latest supercomputers have enabled the study of the QCD thermodynamic phase transition using lattice gauge theory numerical simulations with unprecedented control over systematic errors. This is largely a consequence of the ability to perform continuum extrapolations with physical quark masses. Here we review recent progress in lattice QCD thermodynamics, focussing mainly on results that benefit from the use of physical quark masses: the crossover temperature, the equation of state, and fluctuations of the quark number susceptibilities. In addition, we place a special emphasis on calculations that are directly relevant to the study of relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC.
Matrix elements of six-quark operators are needed to extract new physics constraints from experimental searches for neutron-antineutron oscillations. This work presents in detail the first lattice quantum chromodynamics calculations of the necessary neutron-antineutron transition matrix elements including calculation methods and discussions of systematic uncertainties. Implications of isospin and chiral symmetry on the matrix elements, power counting in the isospin limit, and renormalization of a chiral basis of six-quark operators are discussed. Calculations are performed with a chiral-symmetric discretization of the quark action and physical light quark masses in order to avoid the need for chiral extrapolation. Non-perturbative renormalization is performed, including a study of lattice cutoff effects. Excited-state effects are studied using two nucleon operators and multiple values of source-sink separation. Results for the dominant matrix elements are found to be significantly larger compared to previous results from the MIT bag model. Future calculations are needed to fully account for systematic uncertainties associated with discretization and finite-volume effects but are not expected to significantly affect this conclusion.
We present the latest lattice QCD results for baryon interactions obtained at nearly physical quark masses. $N_f = 2+1$ nonperturbatively ${cal O}(a)$-improved Wilson quark action with stout smearing and Iwasaki gauge action are employed on the lattice of $(96a)^4 simeq (8.1mbox{fm})^4$ with $a^{-1} simeq 2.3$ GeV, where $m_pi simeq 146$ MeV and $m_K simeq 525$ MeV. In this report, we study the two-nucleon systems and two-$Xi$ systems in $^1S_0$ channel and $^3S_1$-$^3D_1$ coupled channel, and extract central and tensor interactions by the HAL QCD method. We also present the results for the $NOmega$ interaction in $^5S_2$ channel which is relevant to the $NOmega$ pair-momentum correlation in heavy-ion collision experiments.
We present results for several light hadronic quantities ($f_pi$, $f_K$, $B_K$, $m_{ud}$, $m_s$, $t_0^{1/2}$, $w_0$) obtained from simulations of 2+1 flavor domain wall lattice QCD with large physical volumes and nearly-physical pion masses at two lattice spacings. We perform a short, O(3)%, extrapolation in pion mass to the physical values by combining our new data in a simultaneous chiral/continuum `global fit with a number of other ensembles with heavier pion masses. We use the physical values of $m_pi$, $m_K$ and $m_Omega$ to determine the two quark masses and the scale - all other quantities are outputs from our simulations. We obtain results with sub-percent statistical errors and negligible chiral and finite-volume systematics for these light hadronic quantities, including: $f_pi$ = 130.2(9) MeV; $f_K$ = 155.5(8) MeV; the average up/down quark mass and strange quark mass in the $bar {rm MS}$ scheme at 3 GeV, 2.997(49) and 81.64(1.17) MeV respectively; and the neutral kaon mixing parameter, $B_K$, in the RGI scheme, 0.750(15) and the $bar{rm MS}$ scheme at 3 GeV, 0.530(11).
We calculate the light meson spectrum and the light quark masses by lattice QCD simulation, treating all light quarks dynamically and employing the Iwasaki gluon action and the nonperturbatively O(a)-improved Wilson quark action. The calculations are made at the squared lattice spacings at an equal distance a^2~0.005, 0.01 and 0.015 fm^2, and the continuum limit is taken assuming an O(a^2) discretization error. The light meson spectrum is consistent with experiment. The up, down and strange quark masses in the bar{MS} scheme at 2 GeV are bar{m}=(m_{u}+m_{d})/2=3.55^{+0.65}_{-0.28} MeV and m_s=90.1^{+17.2}_{-6.1} MeV where the error includes statistical and all systematic errors added in quadrature. These values contain the previous estimates obtained with the dynamical u and d quarks within the error.
We determine the second Mellin moment of the isovector quark parton distribution function <x>_{u-d} from lattice QCD with N_f=2 sea quark flavours, employing the non-perturbatively improved Wilson-Sheikholeslami-Wohlert action at a pseudoscalar mass of 157(6) MeV. The result is converted non-perturbatively to the RI-MOM scheme and then perturbatively to the MSbar scheme at a scale mu = 2 GeV. As the quark mass is reduced we find the lattice prediction to approach the value extracted from experiments.