No Arabic abstract
The emergence of complex macroscopic phenomena from a small set of parameters and microscopic concepts demonstrates the power and beauty of physical theories. A theory which relates the wealth of data and peculiarities found in nuclei to the small number of parameters and symmetries of quantum chromodynamics is by that standard of exceptional beauty. Decade-long research on computational physics and on effective field theories facilitate the assessment of the presumption that quark masses and strong and electromagnetic coupling constants suffice to parameterize the nuclear chart. By presenting the current status of that enterprise, this article touches the methodology of predicting nuclei by simulating the constituting quarks and gluons and the development of effective field theories as appropriate representations of the fundamental theory. While the nuclear spectra and electromagnetic responses analyzed computationally so far with lattice QCD are in close resemblance to those which intrigued experimentalists a century ago, they also test the theoretical understanding which was unavailable to guide the nuclear pioneers but developed since then. This understanding is shown to be deficient in terms of correlations amongst nuclear observables and their sensitivity to fundamental parameters. By reviewing the transition from one effective field theory to another, from QCD to pionful chiral theories to pionless and eventually to cluster theories, we identify some of those deficiencies and conceptual problems awaiting a solution before QCD can be identified as the high-energy theory from which the nuclear landscape emerges.
An approach for relating the nucleon excited states extracted from lattice QCD and the nucleon resonances of experimental data has been developed using the Hamiltonian effective field theory (HEFT) method. By formulating HEFT in the finite volume of the lattice, the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian model can be related to the energy eigenstates observed in Lattice simulations. By taking the infinite-volume limit of HEFT, information from the lattice is linked to experiment. The approach opens a new window for the study of experimentally-observed resonances from the first principles of lattice QCD calculations. With the Hamiltonian approach, one not only describes the spectra of lattice-QCD eigenstates through the eigenvalues of the finite-volume Hamiltonian matrix, but one also learns the composition of the lattice-QCD eigenstates via the eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian matrix. One learns the composition of the states in terms of the meson-baryon basis states considered in formulating the effective field theory. One also learns the composition of the resonances observed in Nature. In this paper, we will focus on recent breakthroughs in our understanding of the structure of the $N^*(1535)$, $N^*(1440)$ and $Lambda^*(1405)$ resonances using this method.
Pionless effective field theory in a finite volume (FVEFT$_{pi!/}$) is investigated as a framework for the analysis of multi-nucleon spectra and matrix elements calculated in lattice QCD (LQCD). By combining FVEFT$_{pi!/}$ with the stochastic variational method, the spectra of nuclei with atomic number $Ain{2,3}$ are matched to existing finite-volume LQCD calculations at heavier-than-physical quark masses corresponding to a pion mass $m_pi=806$ MeV, thereby enabling infinite-volume binding energies to be determined using infinite-volume variational calculations. Based on the variational wavefunctions that are constructed in this approach, the finite-volume matrix elements of various local operators are computed in FVEFT$_{pi!/}$ and matched to LQCD calculations of the corresponding QCD operators in the same volume, thereby determining the relevant one and two-body EFT counterterms and enabling an extrapolation of the LQCD matrix elements to infinite volume. As examples, the scalar, tensor, and axial matrix elements are considered, as well as the magnetic moments and the isovector longitudinal momentum fraction.
Recent advances in lattice field theory, in computer technology and in chiral perturbation theory have enabled lattice QCD to emerge as a powerful quantitative tool in understanding hadron structure. I describe recent progress in the computation of the nucleon form factors and moments of parton distribution functions, before proceeding to describe lattice studies of the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, I show how lattice studies of GPDs contribute to building a three-dimensional picture of the proton. I conclude by describing the prospects for studying the structure of resonances from lattice QCD.
Some form of nonperturbative regularization is necessary if effective field theory treatments of the NN interaction are to yield finite answers. We discuss various regularization schemes used in the literature. Two of these methods involve formally iterating the divergent interaction and then regularizing and renormalizing the resultant amplitude. Either a (sharp or smooth) cutoff can be introduced, or dimensional regularization can be applied. We show that these two methods yield different results after renormalization. Furthermore, if a cutoff is used, the NN phase shift data cannot be reproduced if the cutoff is taken to infinity. We also argue that the assumptions which allow the use of dimensional regularization in perturbative EFT calculations are violated in this problem. Another possibility is to introduce a regulator into the potential before iteration and then keep the cutoff parameter finite. We argue that this does not lead to a systematically-improvable NN interaction.
We calculate potentials between a proton and a $Xi^0$ (hyperon with strangeness -2) through the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter wave function, employing quenched lattice QCD simulations with the plaquette gauge action and the Wilson quark action on (4.5 fm)^4 lattice at the lattice spacing $a simeq 0.14$ fm. The ud quark mass in our study corresponds to $m_{pi}simeq 0.37$ and 0.51 GeV, while the s quark mass corresponds to the physical value of $m_K$. The central $p Xi^0$ potential has a strong (weak) repulsive core in the $^1S_0$ ($^3S_1$) channel for $r lsim 0.6$ fm, while the potential has attractive well at the medium and long distances (0.6 fm $lsim r lsim 1.2$ fm) in both channels. The sign of the $p Xi^0$ scattering length and its quark mass dependence indicate a net attraction in both channels at low energies.