Nucleon isovector couplings from $N_f=2$ lattice QCD

We compute the axial, scalar, tensor and pseudoscalar isovector couplings of the nucleon as well as the induced tensor and pseudoscalar charges in lattice simulations with $N_f=2$ mass-degenerate non-perturbatively improved Wilson-Sheikholeslami-Wohlert fermions. The simulations are carried out down to a pion mass of 150 MeV and linear spatial lattice extents of up to 4.6 fm at three different lattice spacings ranging from approximately 0.08 fm to 0.06 fm. Possible excited state contamination is carefully investigated and finite volume effects are studied. The couplings, determined at these lattice spacings, are extrapolated to the physical pion mass. In this limit we find agreement with experimental results, where these exist, with the exception of the magnetic moment. A proper continuum limit could not be performed, due to our limited range of lattice constants, but no significant lattice spacing dependence is detected. Upper limits on discretization effects are estimated and these dominate the error budget.

Lattice calculation of $D_s$ to $eta^{(prime)}$ semi-leptonic decay form factors

We report lattice results of $D_s$ meson semi-leptonic decay form factors to $eta$ and $eta$ mesons. This decay process contains disconnected fermion loops, which are challenging in lattice calculations. Our result shows that the disconnected loops give significant contributions to the form factors.

<x>_{u-d} from lattice QCD at nearly physical quark masses

We determine the second Mellin moment of the isovector quark parton distribution function <x>_{u-d} from lattice QCD with N_f=2 sea quark flavours, employing the non-perturbatively improved Wilson-Sheikholeslami-Wohlert action at a pseudoscalar mass of 157(6) MeV. The result is converted non-perturbatively to the RI-MOM scheme and then perturbatively to the MSbar scheme at a scale mu = 2 GeV. As the quark mass is reduced we find the lattice prediction to approach the value extracted from experiments.