No Arabic abstract
A relation is presented between single-hadron long-range matrix elements defined in a finite Euclidean spacetime, and the corresponding infinite-volume Minkowski amplitudes. This relation is valid in the kinematic region where any number of two-hadron states can simultaneously go on shell, so that the effects of strongly-coupled intermediate channels are included. These channels can consist of non-identical particles with arbitrary intrinsic spins. The result accommodates general Lorentz structures as well as non-zero momentum transfer for the two external currents inserted between the single-hadron states. The formalism, therefore, generalizes the work by Christ et al.~[Phys.Rev. D91 114510 (2015)], and extends the reach of lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) to a wide class of new observables beyond meson mixing and rare decays. Applications include Compton scattering of the pion ($pi gamma^star to [pi pi, K overline K] to pi gamma^star$), kaon ($K gamma^star to [pi K, eta K] to K gamma^star$) and nucleon ($N gamma^star to N pi to N gamma^star$), as well as double-$beta$ decays, and radiative corrections to the single-$beta$ decay, of QCD-stable hadrons. The framework presented will further facilitate generalization of the result to studies of nuclear amplitudes involving two currents from lattice QCD.
We derive relations between finite-volume matrix elements and infinite-volume decay amplitudes, for processes with three spinless, degenerate and either identical or non-identical particles in the final state. This generalizes the Lellouch-Luscher relation for two-particle decays and provides a strategy for extracting three-hadron decay amplitudes using lattice QCD. Unlike for two particles, even in the simplest approximation, one must solve integral equations to obtain the physical decay amplitude, a consequence of the nontrivial finite-state interactions. We first derive the result in a simplified theory with three identical particles, and then present the generalizations needed to study phenomenologically relevant three-pion decays. The specific processes we discuss are the CP-violating $K to 3pi$ weak decay, the isospin-breaking $eta to 3pi$ QCD transition, and the electromagnetic $gamma^*to 3pi$ amplitudes that enter the calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to muonic $g-2$.
We propose a method to reconstruct smeared spectral functions from two-point correlation functions measured on the Euclidean lattice. Arbitrary smearing function can be considered as far as it is smooth enough to allow an approximation using Chebyshev polynomials. We test the method with numerical lattice data of Charmonium correlators. The method provides a framework to compare lattice calculation with experimental data including excited state contributions without assuming quark-hadron duality.
Building upon our recent study arXiv:1709.04325, we investigate the feasibility of calculating the pion distribution amplitude from suitably chosen Euclidean correlation functions at large momentum. We demonstrate in this work the advantage of analyzing several correlation functions simultaneously and extracting the pion distribution amplitude from a global fit. This approach also allows us to study higher-twist corrections, which are a major source of systematic error. Our result for the higher-twist parameter $delta^pi_2$ is in good agreement with estimates from QCD sum rules. Another novel element is the use of all-to-all propagators, calculated using stochastic estimators, which enables an additional volume average of the correlation functions, thereby reducing statistical errors.
Whether one is interested in accessing the excited spectrum of hadrons or testing the standard model of particle physics, electroweak transition processes involving multi-hadron channels in the final state play an important role in a variety of experiments. Presently the primary theoretical tool with which one can study such reactions is lattice QCD, which is defined in a finite spacetime volume. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of implementing existing finite-volume formalism in realistic lattice QCD calculation of reactions in which a stable hadron can transition to one of several two-hadron channels under the action of an external current. We provide a conceptual description of the coupled-channel transition formalism, a practical roadmap for carrying out a calculation, and an illustration of the approach using synthetic data for two non-trivial resonant toy models. The results provide a proof-of-principle that such reactions can indeed be constrained using modern-day lattice QCD calculations, motivating explicit computation in the near future.
The presence of long-range interactions violates a condition necessary to relate the energy of two particles in a finite volume to their S-matrix elements in the manner of Luscher. While in infinite volume, QED contributions to low-energy charged particle scattering must be resummed to all orders in perturbation theory (the Coulomb ladder diagrams), in a finite volume the momentum operator is gapped, allowing for a perturbative treatment. The leading QED corrections to the two-particle finite-volume energy quantization condition below the inelastic threshold, as well as approximate formulas for energy eigenvalues, are obtained. In particular, we focus on two spinless hadrons in the A1+ irreducible representation of the cubic group, and truncate the strong interactions to the s-wave. These results are necessary for the analysis of Lattice QCD+QED calculations of charged-hadron interactions, and can be straightforwardly generalized to other representations of the cubic group, to hadrons with spin, and to include higher partial waves.