Nucleon structure from 2+1-flavor domain-wall QCD

Nucleon-structure calculations of isovector vector-and axialvector-current form factors, transversity and scalar charge, and quark momentum and helicity fractions are reported from two recent 2+1-flavor dynamical domain-wall fermions lattice-QCD ensembles generated jointly by the RIKEN-BNL-Columbia and UKQCD Collaborations with Iwasaki × dislocation-suppressing-determinatn-ratio gauge action at inverse lattice spacing of 1.378(7) GeV and pion mass values of 249.4(3) and 172.3(3) MeV.

Nucleon average quark momentum fraction with Nf = 2+1 Wilson fermions

We report on an analysis of the average quark momentum fraction of the nucleon and related quantities using Nf = 2 + 1 Wilson fermions. Computations are performed on four CLS ensembles covering three values of the lattice spacing at pion masses down to Mπ ≈ 200 MeV. Several source-sink separations (~ 1:0 fm to ~ 1:4 fm) are used to assess the excited-state contamination. To gain further insight, the generalized pencil-of-functions approach has been implemented to reduce the excited-state contamination in the relevant two-and three-point functions. Preliminary results are shown for the isovector nucleon charges from vector, axial vector and tensor derivative (twist-2) operators.

Multi-hadron-state contamination in nucleon observables from chiral perturbation theory

Multi-particle states with additional pions are expected to be a non-negligible source of the excited-state contamination in lattice simulations at the physical point. It is shown that baryon chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) can be employed to calculate the contamination due to two-particle nucleon-pion states in various nucleon observables. Results to leading order are presented for the nucleon axial, tensor and scalar charge and three Mellin moments of parton distribution functions: the average quark momentum fraction, the helicity and the transversity moment. Taking into account experimental and phenomenological results for the charges and moments the impact of the nucleon-pionstates on lattice estimates for these observables can be estimated. The nucleon-pion-state contribution leads to an overestimation of all charges and moments obtained with the plateau method. The overestimation is at the 5-10% level for source-sink separations of about 2 fm. Existing lattice data is not in conflict with the ChPT predictions, but the comparison suggests that significantly larger source-sink separations are needed to compute the charges and moments with few-percent precision.

Chiral perturbation theory and nucleon–pion-state contaminations in lattice QCD

Multiparticle states with additional pions are expected to be a non-negligible source of excited-state contamination in lattice simulations at the physical point. It is shown that baryon chiral perturbation theory can be employed to calculate the contamination due to two-particle nucleon–pion-states in various nucleon observables. Leading order results are presented for the nucleon axial, tensor and scalar charge and three Mellin moments of parton distribution functions (quark momentum fraction, helicity and transversity moment). Taking into account phenomenological results for the charges and moments the impact of the nucleon–pion-states on lattice estimates for these observables can be estimated. The nucleon–pion-state contribution results in an overestimation of all charges and moments obtained with the plateau method. The overestimation is at the 5–10% level for source-sink separations of about 2 fm. The source-sink separations accessible in contemporary lattice simulations are found to be too small for chiral perturbation theory to be directly applicable.