arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Constantia Alexandrou.
We compute the disconnected quark loops contributions entering the determination of nucleon observables, by using a $N_f = 2$ ensemble of twisted mass fermions with a clover term at a pion mass $m_π= 133$ MeV. We employ exact deflation and implement all calculations in GPUs, enabling us to achieve large statistics and a good signal.
The equivalence of cooling to the gradient flow when the cooling step $n_c$ and the continuous flow step of gradient flow $τ$ are matched is generalized to gauge actions that include rectangular terms. By expanding the link variables up to subleading terms in perturbation theory, we relate $n_c$ and $τ$ and show that the results for the topological charge become equivalent when rescaling $τ\simeq n_c/({3-15 c_1})$ where $c_1$ is the Symanzik coefficient multiplying the rectangular term. We, subsequently, apply cooling and the gradient flow using the Wilson, the Symanzik tree-level improved and the Iwasaki gauge actions to configurations produced with $N_f=2+1+1$ twisted mass fermions. We compute the topological charge, its distribution and the correlators between cooling and gradient flow at three values of the lattice spacing demonstrating that the perturbative rescaling $τ\simeq n_c/({3-15 c_1})$ leads to equivalent results.
We present results on the renormalization functions of the quark field and fermion bilinears with up to one covariant derivative. For the fermion part of the action we employ the twisted mass formulation with $N_f{=}2$ and $N_f{=}4$ degenerate dynamical quarks, while in the gluon sector we use the Iwasaki improved action. The simulations for $N_f{=}4$ have been performed for pion masses in the range of 390MeV - 760MeV and at three values of the lattice spacing, $a$, corresponding to $β{=}1.90,\,1.95,\,2.10$. The $N_f{=}2$ action includes a clover term with $c_{\rm sw}{=}1.57551$ at $β{=}2.10$, and three ensembles at different values of $m_π$. The evaluation of the renormalization functions is carried out in the RI$'$ scheme using a momentum source. The non-perturbartive evaluation is complemented with a perturbative computation, which is carried out at one-loop level and to all orders in the lattice spacing, $a$. For each renormalization function computed non-perturbatively we subtract the corresponding lattice artifacts to all orders in $a$, so that a large part of the cut-off effects is eliminated. The renormalization functions are converted to the ${\overline{\rm MS}}$ scheme at a reference energy scale of $μ{=}2$ GeV after taking the chiral limit.
The conjecture that several recently observed mesons have a structure, which is not dominated by an ordinary quark-antiquark pair, but by a four-quark structure, is being actively investigated both theoretical and experimentally. Such a state may be characterized as a mesonic molecule or as a diquark-antidiquark pair. Lattice QCD provides a theoretically sound framework to study such states. To quantitatively investigate the internal structure of such mesons, one needs to precisely compute correlation matrices containing several interpolating operators including two and four quarks. Here we discuss certain technical aspects of such correlation matrices suited to study tetraquark candidates with $J^P = 0^+$ and flavor structure $q_1 \bar{q_2} q_3 \bar{q}_3$, e.g.\ the $a_0(980)$ meson, the $D_{s0}^\ast$ meson and some of the charged $c \bar{c}$ $X$ states. Some numerical results for the $a_0(980)$ meson are presented.
We report on our exploratory study for the direct evaluation of the parton distribution functions from lattice QCD, based on a recently proposed new approach. We present encouraging results using Nf = 2 + 1 + 1 twisted mass fermions with a pion mass of about 370 MeV. The focus of this work is a detailed description of the computation, including the lattice calculation, the matching to an infinite momentum and the nucleon mass correction. In addition, we test the effect of gauge link smearing in the operator to estimate the influence of the Wilson line renormalization, which is yet to be done.
We present a non-perturbative calculation of the strangeness of the nucleon $y_N$ within the framework of lattice QCD. This observable is known to be an important cornerstone to interpret results from direct dark matter detection experiments. We perform a lattice computation for $y_N$ with an analysis of systematic effects originating from discretization, finite size, chiral extrapolation and excited state effects leading to the value of $y_N= 0.173(50)$. The rather large uncertainty of this value of $y_N$ is dominated by systematic uncertainties which we were able to quantify in this work.
The extraction of the magnetic form factor of the nucleon at zero momentum transfer is usually performed by adopting a parametrization for its momentum dependence and fitting the results obtained at finite momenta. We present position space methods that rely on taking the derivative of relevant correlators to extract directly the magnetic form factor at zero momentum without the need to assume a functional form for its momentum dependence. These methods are explored on one ensemble using $N_f=2+1+1$ Wilson twisted mass fermions.
Results on the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon using twisted mass fermion configurations are presented. These include a gauge field ensemble simulated with two degenerate light quarks yielding a pion mass of around 130 MeV, as well as two ensembles that include strange and charm quarks in the sea yielding pion masses of 210 MeV and 373 MeV. Details of the methods used and systematic errors are discussed, such as noise reduction techniques and the effect of excited states contamination.
We present results on the disconnected contributions to three point functions entering in studies of hadron structure. We use $N_F = 2+1+1$ twisted mass fermions and give a detailed description on the results of the nucleon σ-terms, isoscalar axial charge and first moments of bare parton distributions for a range of pions masses. In addition we give the σ-terms and the computations are performed using QUDA code implemented on GPUs.
We present results on the nucleon scalar, axial and tensor charges, as well as, on the first moments of the unpolarized, polarized and transversity parton distributions using $N_f=2$ and $N_f=2+1+1$ twisted mass fermions. These include an ensemble that yields the physical value of the ratio of the nucleon to the pion mass. Results on the axial charges of hyperons and charmed baryons are also presented for a range of pion masses including the physical one.
We review results on hadron structure using lattice QCD simulations with pion masses close or at to the physical value. We pay particular attention to recent successes on the computation of the mass of the low-lying baryons and on the challenges involved in evaluating energies of excited states and resonance parameters, as well as, in studies of nucleon structure.
We report on our exploratory study for the evaluation of the parton distribution functions from lattice QCD, based on a new method proposed in Ref.~arXiv:1305.1539. Using the example of the nucleon, we compare two different methods to compute the matrix elements needed, and investigate the application of gauge link smearing. We also present first results from a large production ensemble and discuss the future challenges related to this method.
We discuss technical aspects and first results of a lattice QCD study of the $a_0(980)$ state. We employ various interpolating operators of quark-antiquark, mesonic molecule, diquark-antidiquark and two-meson type. Both connected and disconnected contributions including diagrams with closed fermion loops are computed. To keep statistical errors small, it is essential to optimize the computation of these diagrams by choosing that combination of techniques most appropriate for each type of diagram from the correlation matrix of interpolating operators. We illustrate, how this can be done, by discussing certain diagrams in detail. We also present preliminary results corresponding to a $4\times 4$ submatrix computed with 2+1 flavors of clover fermions.
We discuss the status of current dynamical lattice QCD simulations in connection to the emerging results on the strange and charmed baryon spectrum, excited states of the nucleon and the investigation of the structure of scalar mesons.
We present recent developments in lattice QCD simulations as applied in the study of hadron structure. We discuss the challenges and perspectives in the evaluation of benchmark quantities such as the nucleon axial charge and the isovector parton momentum fraction, as well as, in the computation of the nucleon $σ$-terms, which involve the calculation of disconnected quark loop contributions.
Although QUDA allows for an efficient computation of many QCD quantities, it is surprinsingly lacking tools to evaluate disconnected diagrams, for which GPUs are specially well suited. We aim to fill this gap by creating our own branch of QUDA, which includes new kernels and functions required to calculate fermion loops using several methods and fermionic regularizations.
We compare several methods for computing disconnected fermion loops contributing to nucleon three-point functions. The comparison is carried out using one ensemble of $N_f=2+1+1$ twisted mass fermions with pion mass of 373 MeV. The complete set of operators up to one-derivative are examined by developing optimized code for mutli-GPUs. Simple guidelines are given as to the preferable method for each class of operators.
We present a stochastic method for the calculation of baryon three-point functions that is more versatile compared to the typically used sequential method. We analyze the scaling of the error of the stochastically evaluated three-point function with the lattice volume and find a favorable signal-to-noise ratio suggesting that our stochastic method can be used efficiently at large volumes to compute hadronic matrix elements.