We present lattice QCD calculations of nucleon electromagnetic form factors using pion masses $m_pi$ = 149, 202, and 254 MeV and an action with clover-improved Wilson quarks coupled to smeared gauge fields, as used by the Budapest-Marseille-Wuppertal
collaboration. Particular attention is given to removal of the effects of excited state contamination by calculation at three source-sink separations and use of the summation and generalized pencil-of-function methods. The combination of calculation at the nearly physical mass $m_pi$ = 149 MeV in a large spatial volume ($m_pi L_s$ = 4.2) and removal of excited state effects yields agreement with experiment for the electric and magnetic form factors $G_E(Q^2)$ and $G_M(Q^2)$ up to $Q^2$ = 0.5 GeV$^2$.
A method suitable for extracting resonance parameters of unstable baryons in lattice QCD is examined. The method is applied to the strong decay of the Delta to a pion-nucleon state, extracting the pi-N - Delta coupling constant and Delta decay width.
A method suitable for extracting resonance parameters of unstable baryons in lattice QCD is examined. The method is applied to the strong decay of the Delta to a pion-nucleon state, extracting the pion-nucleon - Delta coupling constant and Delta decay width.
We present 2+1 flavor Lattice QCD calculations of the nucleon scalar and tensor charges. Using the BMW clover-improved Wilson action with pion masses between 150 and 350 MeV and three source-sink separations between 0.9 and 1.4 fm, we achieve good co
ntrol over excited-state contamination and extrapolation to the physical pion mass. As a consistency check, we also present results from calculations using unitary domain wall fermions with pion masses between 300 and 400 MeV, and using domain wall valence quarks and staggered sea quarks with pion masses between 300 and 600 MeV.
We report contributions to the nucleon spin and momentum from light quarks calculated using dynamical domain wall fermions with pion masses down to 300 MeV and fine lattice spacing a=0.084 fm. Albeit without disconnected diagrams, we observe that spi
n and orbital angular momenta of both u and d quarks are opposite, almost canceling in the case of the d quark, which agrees with previous calculations using a mixed quark action. We also present the full momentum dependence of n=2 generalized form factors showing little variation with the pion mass.
Motivated by the possible observation of the $Theta^+(1530)$, we study the quark structure of pentaquark states in quenched lattice QCD. The complete set of 19 local sources that have the proper symmetry for positive or negative parity isoscalar pent
aquarks is constructed, as well as a nonlocal source composed of two displaced ``good diquarks. Quantitative structure information is determined from diagonalizing the 19-dimensional correlation matrix and from calculating the overlaps of sources with the lattice eigenstates. The volume dependence of the overlap is studied to differentiate between scattering and localized resonant states. The positive parity state has a small component of two ``good diquarks, and its energy is too much higher than the negative parity state to be a candidate for the $Theta^+(1530)$.
Developments in lattice field theory and computer technology have led to dramatic advances in the use of lattice QCD to explore the quark structure of hadrons. This talk will describe selected examples, including structure functions, electromagnetic
form factors, the nucleon axial charge, the origin of the nucleon spin, the transverse structure of the nucleon, and the nucleon to Delta transition form factor.
In contrast to ensembles of singular gauge instantons, which are well known to fail to produce confinement, it is shown that effective theories based on ensembles of merons or regular gauge instantons do produce confinement. Furthermore, when the sca
le is set by the string tension, the action density, topological susceptibility, and glueball masses are similar to those arising in lattice QCD.
This work presents the first calculation in lattice QCD of three moments of spin-averaged and spin-polarized generalized parton distributions in the proton. It is shown that the slope of the associated generalized form factors decreases significantly
as the moment increases, indicating that the transverse size of the light-cone quark distribution decreases as the momentum fraction of the struck parton increases.
It is shown that an effective theory with meron degrees of freedom produces confinement in SU(2) Yang Mills theory. This effective theory is compatible with center symmetry. When the scale is set by the string tension, the action density and topologi
cal susceptibility are similar to those arising in lattice QCD.
