Supersymmetry is a prominent candidate for physics beyond the standard model. In order to compute the spectrum of supersymmetric theories, we employ nonperturbative lattice QFT techniques which due to the discretisation of spacetime violate supersymmetry at finite lattice spacings. Care has to be taken then to restore supersymmetry in the continuum limit. We discuss a discretisation of the supersymmetric Nonlinear O(N) Sigma model in two dimensions and argue that supersymmetry may be restored by finetuning of a single parameter. Furthermore, we show preliminary results for the vacuum physics of N = 2 Super-Yang-Mills theory in three dimensions.
The Source Galerkin Method is a new numerical technique that is being developed to solve Quantum Field Theories on the continuum. It is not based on Monte Carlo techniques and has a measure to evaluate relative errors. It promises to increase the accuracy and speed of calculations, and takes full advantage of symmetries of the theory. The application of this method to the non-linear sigma model is outlined.
We present a lattice-QCD calculation of the pion, kaon and $eta_s$ distribution amplitudes using large-momentum effective theory (LaMET). Our calculation is carried out using three ensembles with 2+1+1 flavors of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ), generated by MILC collaboration, at 310 MeV pion mass with 0.06, 0.09 and 0.12 fm lattice spacings. We use clover fermion action for the valence quarks and tune the quark mass to match the lightest light and strange masses in the sea. The resulting lattice matrix elements are nonperturbatively renormalized in regularization-independent momentum-subtraction (RI/MOM) scheme and extrapolated to the continuum. We use two approaches to extract the $x$-dependence of the meson distribution amplitudes: 1) we fit the renormalized matrix elements in coordinate space to an assumed distribution form through a one-loop matching kernel; 2) we use a machine-learning algorithm trained on pseudo lattice-QCD data to make predictions on the lattice data. We found the results are consistent between these methods with the latter method giving a less smooth shape. Both approaches suggest that as the quark mass increases, the distribution amplitude becomes narrower. Our pion distribution amplitude has broader distribution than predicted by light-front constituent-quark model, and the moments of our pion distributions agree with previous lattice-QCD results using the operator production expansion.
We present the first lattice-QCD calculation of the nucleon isovector unpolarized parton distribution functions (PDFs) at the physical-continuum limit using Large-Momentum Effective Theory (LaMET). The lattice results are calculated using ensembles with multiple sea pion masses with the lightest one around 135~MeV, 3 lattice spacings $ain[0.06,0.12]$~fm, and multiple volumes with $M_pi L$ ranging 3.3 to 5.5. We perform a simultaneous chiral-continuum extrapolation to obtain RI/MOM renormalized nucleon matrix elements with various Wilson-link displacements in the continuum limit at physical pion mass. Then, we apply one-loop perturbative matching to the quasi-PDFs to obtain the lightcone PDFs. We find the lattice-spacing dependence to be much larger than the dependence on pion mass and lattice volume for these LaMET matrix elements. Our physical-continuum limit unpolarized isovector nucleon PDFs are found to be consistent with global-PDF results.
The quasi-PDF approach provides a path to computing parton distribution functions (PDFs) using lattice QCD. This approach requires matrix elements of a power-divergent operator in a nucleon at high momentum and one generically expects discretization effects starting at first order in the lattice spacing $a$. Therefore, it is important to demonstrate that the continuum limit can be reliably taken and to understand the size and shape of lattice artifacts. In this work, we report a calculation of isovector unpolarized and helicity PDFs using lattice ensembles with $N_f=2+1+1$ Wilson twisted mass fermions, a pion mass of approximately 370 MeV, and three different lattice spacings. Our results show a significant dependence on $a$, and the continuum extrapolation produces a better agreement with phenomenology. The latter is particularly true for the antiquark distribution at small momentum fraction $x$, where the extrapolation changes its sign.
We determine the continuum limit of the curvature of the pseudocritical line of QCD with $n_f$=2+1 staggered fermions at nonzero temperature and quark density. We perform Monte Carlo simulations at imaginary baryon chemical potentials, adopting the HISQ/tree action discretization, as implemented in the code by the MILC collaboration. Couplings are adjusted so as to move on a line of constant physics, as determined in Ref.~cite{Bazavov:2011nk}, with the strange quark mass $m_s$ fixed at its physical value and a light-to-strange mass ratio $m_l/m_s=1/20$. The chemical potential is set at the same value for the three quark species, $mu_l=mu_sequiv mu$. We attempt an extrapolation to the continuum using the results on lattices with temporal size up to $L_t=12$. Our estimate for the continuum value of the curvature $kappa$ at zero baryon density, $kappa=0.020(4)$, is compared with recent lattice results and with experimental determinations of the freeze-out curve.