Interactions between Lattice Hadrons

Abstract

The effective residual interaction for a system of hadrons has a long tradition in theoretical physics. It has been mostly addressed in terms of boson exchange models. The aim of this review is to describe approaches based on lattice field theory and numerical simulation. At the present time this subject matter is in an exploratory stage. A large array of problems waits to be tackled, so that known features of hadron-hadron interactions will eventually be understood in a model-independent way. The lattice formulation, being capable of dealing with the nonperturbative regime, describes strong-interaction physics from first principles, i.e. quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Although the physics of hadron-hadron interactions may be intrinsically complicated, the methods used in lattice simulations are simple: For the most part they are based on standard mass calculations. This chapter addresses commonly used techniques, within QCD and also simpler lattice models, describes important results, and also gives some insight into numerical methods for multi-quark systems.