No Arabic abstract
We present a determination of nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts for l >= 0. The S, P, D and F phase shifts for both the spin-triplet and spin-singlet channels are computed with lattice Quantum ChromoDynamics. For l > 0, this is the first lattice QCD calculation using the Luscher finite-volume formalism. This required the design and implementation of novel lattice methods involving displaced sources and momentum-space cubic sinks. To demonstrate the utility of our approach, the calculations were performed in the SU(3)-flavor limit where the light quark masses have been tuned to the physical strange quark mass, corresponding to m_pi = m_K ~ 800 MeV. In this work, we have assumed that only the lowest partial waves contribute to each channel, ignoring the unphysical partial wave mixing that arises within the finite-volume formalism. This assumption is only valid for sufficiently low energies; we present evidence that it holds for our study using two different channels. Two spatial volumes of V ~ (3.5 fm)^3 and V ~ (4.6 fm)^3 were used. The finite-volume spectrum is extracted from the exponential falloff of the correlation functions. Said spectrum is mapped onto the infinite volume phase shifts using the generalization of the Luscher formalism for two-nucleon systems.
Luschers method is routinely used to determine meson-meson, meson-baryon and baryon-baryon s-wave scattering amplitudes below inelastic thresholds from Lattice QCD calculations - presently at unphysical light-quark masses. In this work we review the formalism and develop the requisite expressions to extract phase-shifts describing meson-meson scattering in partial-waves with angular-momentum l<=6 and l=9. The implications of the underlying cubic symmetry, and strategies for extracting the phase-shifts from Lattice QCD calculations, are presented, along with a discussion of the signal-to-noise problem that afflicts the higher partial-waves.
We study two- and three-meson systems composed either of pions or kaons at maximal isospin using Monte Carlo simulations of lattice QCD. Utilizing the stochastic LapH method, we are able to determine hundreds of two- and three-particle energy levels, in nine different momentum frames, with high precision. We fit these levels using the relativistic finite-volume formalism based on a generic effective field theory in order to determine the parameters of the two- and three-particle K-matrices. We find that the statistical precision of our spectra is sufficient to probe not only the dominant $s$-wave interactions, but also those in $d$ waves. In particular, we determine for the first time a term in the three-particle K-matrix that contains two-particle $d$ waves. We use three $N_f=2+1$ CLS ensembles with pion masses of $200$, $280$, and $340;$MeV. This allows us to study the chiral dependence of the scattering observables, and compare to the expectations of chiral perturbation theory.
We determine the $Delta(1232)$ resonance parameters using lattice QCD and the Luscher method. The resonance occurs in elastic pion-nucleon scattering with $J^P=3/2^+$ in the isospin $I = 3/2$, $P$-wave channel. Our calculation is performed with $N_f=2+1$ flavors of clover fermions on a lattice with $Lapprox 2.8$ fm. The pion and nucleon masses are $m_pi =255.4(1.6)$ MeV and $m_N=1073(5)$ MeV, and the strong decay channel $Delta rightarrow pi N$ is found to be above the threshold. To thoroughly map out the energy-dependence of the nucleon-pion scattering amplitude, we compute the spectra in all relevant irreducible representations of the lattice symmetry groups for total momenta up to $vec{P}=frac{2pi}{L}(1,1,1)$, including irreps that mix $S$ and $P$ waves. We perform global fits of the amplitude parameters to up to 21 energy levels, using a Breit-Wigner model for the $P$-wave phase shift and the effective-range expansion for the $S$-wave phase shift. From the location of the pole in the $P$-wave scattering amplitude, we obtain the resonance mass $m_Delta=1378(7)(9)$ MeV and the coupling $g_{Deltatext{-}pi N}=23.8(2.7)(0.9)$.
We present a lattice QCD study of $Npi$ scattering in the positive-parity nucleon channel, where the puzzling Roper resonance $N^*(1440)$ resides in experiment. The study is based on the PACS-CS ensemble of gauge configurations with $N_f=2+1$ Wilson-clover dynamical fermions, $m_pi simeq 156~$MeV and $Lsimeq 2.9~$fm. In addition to a number of $qqq$ interpolating fields, we implement operators for $Npi$ in $p$-wave and $Nsigma$ in $s$-wave. In the center-of-momentum frame we find three eigenstates below 1.65 GeV. They are dominated by $N(0)$, $N(0)pi(0)pi(0)$ (mixed with $N(0)sigma(0)$) and $N(p)pi(-p)$ with $psimeq 2pi/L$, where momenta are given in parentheses. This is the first simulation where the expected multi-hadron states are found in this channel. The experimental $Npi$ phase-shift would -- in the approximation of purely elastic $Npi$ scattering -- imply an additional eigenstate near the Roper mass $m_Rsimeq 1.43~$GeV for our lattice size. We do not observe any such additional eigenstate, which indicates that $Npi$ elastic scattering alone does not render a low-lying Roper. Coupling with other channels, most notably with $Npipi$, seems to be important for generating the Roper resonance, reinforcing the notion that this state could be a dynamically generated resonance. Our results are in line with most of previous lattice studies based just on $qqq$ interpolators, that did not find a Roper eigenstate below $1.65~$GeV. The study of the coupled-channel scattering including a three-particle decay $Npipi$ remains a challenge.
We calculate the parameters describing elastic $I=1$, $P$-wave $pipi$ scattering using lattice QCD with $2+1$ flavors of clover fermions. Our calculation is performed with a pion mass of $m_pi approx 320::{rm MeV}$ and a lattice size of $Lapprox 3.6$ fm. We construct the two-point correlation matrices with both quark-antiquark and two-hadron interpolating fields using a combination of smeared forward, sequential and stochastic propagators. The spectra in all relevant irreducible representations for total momenta $|vec{P}| leq sqrt{3} frac{2pi}{L}$ are extracted with two alternative methods: a variational analysis as well as multi-exponential matrix fits. We perform an analysis using Luschers formalism for the energies below the inelastic thresholds, and investigate several phase shift models, including possible nonresonant contributions. We find that our data are well described by the minimal Breit-Wigner form, with no statistically significant nonresonant component. In determining the $rho$ resonance mass and coupling we compare two different approaches: fitting the individually extracted phase shifts versus fitting the $t$-matrix model directly to the energy spectrum. We find that both methods give consistent results, and at a pion mass of $am_{pi}=0.18295(36)_{stat}$ obtain $g_{rhopipi} = 5.69(13)_{stat}(16)_{sys}$, $am_rho = 0.4609(16)_{stat}(14)_{sys}$, and $am_{rho}/am_{N} = 0.7476(38)_{stat}(23)_{sys} $, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is the systematic uncertainty due to the choice of fit ranges.