arXiv subjects

Craig D. Roberts

Publications and source records attributed to Craig D. Roberts.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

The pion: an enigma within the Standard Model

Almost 50 years after the discovery of gluons & quarks, we are only just beginning to understand how QCD builds the basic bricks for nuclei: neutrons, protons, and the pions that bind them. QCD is characterised by two emergent phenomena: confinement & dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (DCSB). They are expressed with great force in the character of the pion. In turn, pion properties suggest that confinement & DCSB are closely connected. As both a Nambu-Goldstone boson and a quark-antiquark bound-state, the pion is unique in Nature. Developing an understanding of its properties is thus critical to revealing basic features of the Standard Model. We describe experimental progress in this direction, made using electromagnetic probes, highlighting both improvements in the precision of charged-pion form factor data, achieved in the past decade, and new results on the neutral-pion transition form factor. Both challenge existing notions of pion structure. We also provide a theoretical context for these empirical advances, first explaining how DCSB works to guarantee that the pion is unnaturally light; but also, nevertheless, ensures the pion is key to revealing the mechanisms that generate nearly all the mass of hadrons. Our discussion unifies the charged-pion elastic and neutral-pion transition form factors, and the pion's twist-2 parton distribution amplitude. It also indicates how studies of the charged-kaon form factor can provide significant contributions. Importantly, recent predictions for the large-$Q^2$ behaviour of the pion form factor can be tested by experiments planned at JLab 12. Those experiments will extend precise charged-pion form factor data to momenta that can potentially serve in validating factorisation theorems in QCD, exposing the transition between the nonperturbative and perturbative domains, and thereby reaching a goal that has long driven hadro-particle physics.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2016

Valence-quark distribution functions in the kaon and pion

We describe expressions for pion and kaon dressed-quark distribution functions that incorporate contributions from gluons which bind quarks into these mesons and hence overcome a flaw of the commonly used handbag approximation. The distributions therewith obtained are purely valence in character, ensuring that dressed-quarks carry all a meson's momentum at a characteristic hadronic scale and vanishing as $(1-x)^2$ when Bjorken-$x\to 1$. Comparing such distributions within the pion and kaon, it is apparent that the size of SU(3)-flavour symmetry breaking in meson parton distribution functions is modulated by the flavour dependence of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. Corrections to these leading-order formulae may be divided into two classes, responsible for shifting dressed-quark momentum into glue and sea-quarks. Working with available empirical information, we build an algebraic framework that is capable of expressing the principal impact of both classes of corrections. This enables a realistic comparison with experiment which allows us to identify and highlight basic features of measurable pion and kaon valence-quark distributions. We find that whereas roughly two-thirds of the pion's light-front momentum is carried by valence dressed-quarks at a characteristic hadronic scale, this fraction rises to 95% in the kaon; evolving distributions with these features to a scale typical of available Drell-Yan data produces a kaon-to-pion ratio of u-quark distributions that is in agreement with the single existing data set; and predict a u-quark distribution within the pion that agrees with a modern reappraisal of $πN$ Drell-Yan data. Precise new data are essential in order to validate this reappraisal and because a single modest-quality measurement of the kaon-to-pion ratio cannot be considered definitive.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2016

Symmetry preserving truncations of the gap and Bethe-Salpeter equations

Ward-Green-Takahashi (WGT) identities play a crucial role in hadron physics, e.g. imposing stringent relationships between the kernels of the one- and two-body problems, which must be preserved in any veracious treatment of mesons as bound-states. In this connection, one may view the dressed gluon-quark vertex, $Γ_μ^a$, as fundamental. We use a novel representation of $Γ_μ^a$, in terms of the gluon-quark scattering matrix, to develop a method capable of elucidating the unique quark-antiquark Bethe-Salpeter kernel, $K$, that is symmetry-consistent with a given quark gap equation. A strength of the scheme is its ability to expose and capitalise on graphic symmetries within the kernels. This is displayed in an analysis that reveals the origin of $H$-diagrams in $K$, which are two-particle-irreducible contributions, generated as two-loop diagrams involving the three-gluon vertex, that cannot be absorbed as a dressing of $Γ_μ^a$ in a Bethe-Salpeter kernel nor expressed as a member of the class of crossed-box diagrams. Thus, there are no general circumstances under which the WGT identities essential for a valid description of mesons can be preserved by a Bethe-Salpeter kernel obtained simply by dressing both gluon-quark vertices in a ladder-like truncation; and, moreover, adding any number of similarly-dressed crossed-box diagrams cannot improve the situation.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Contact-interaction Faddeev equation and, inter alia, proton tensor charges

A confining, symmetry-preserving, Dyson-Schwinger equation treatment of a vector-vector contact interaction is used to formulate Faddeev equations for the nucleon and Delta-baryon in which the kernel involves dynamical dressed-quark exchange and whose solutions therefore provide momentum-dependent Faddeev amplitudes. These solutions are compared with those obtained in the static approximation and with a QCD-kindred formulation of the Faddeev kernel. They are also used to compute a range of nucleon properties, amongst them: the proton's sigma-term; the large Bjorken-x values of separate ratios of unpolarised and longitudinally-polarised valence u- and d-quark parton distribution functions; and the proton's tensor charges, which enable one to directly determine the effect of dressed-quark electric dipole moments (EDMs) on neutron and proton EDMs.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Leading-twist parton distribution amplitudes of S-wave heavy-quarkonia

The leading-twist parton distribution amplitudes (PDAs) of ground-state $^1S_0$ and $^3S_1$ $c\bar c$- and $b\bar b$-quarkonia are calculated using a symmetry-preserving continuum treatment of the meson bound-state problem which unifies the properties of these heavy-quark systems with those of light-quark bound-states, including QCD's Goldstone modes. Analysing the evolution of $^1S_0$ and $^3S_1$ PDAs with current-quark mass, $\hat m_q$, increasing away from the chiral limit, it is found that in all cases there is a value of $\hat m_q$ for which the PDA matches the asymptotic form appropriate to QCD's conformal limit and hence is insensitive to changes in renormalisation scale, $ζ$. This mass lies just above that associated with the $s$-quark. At current-quark masses associated with heavy-quarkonia, on the other hand, the PDAs are piecewise convex-concave-convex. They are much narrower than the asymptotic distribution on a large domain of $ζ$; but nonetheless deviate noticeably from $φ_{Q\bar Q}(x) = δ(x-1/2)$, which is the result in the static-quark limit. There are also material differences between $^1S_0$ and $^3S_1$ PDAs, and between the PDAs for different vector-meson polarisations, which vanish slowly with increasing $ζ$. An analysis of moments of the root-mean-square relative-velocity, $\langle v^{2m}\rangle$, in $^1S_0$ and $^3S_1$ systems reveals that $\langle v^4\rangle$-contributions may be needed in order to obtain a reliable estimate of matrix elements using such an expansion, especially for processes involving heavy pseudoscalar quarkonia.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Running Masses in the Nucleon and its Resonances

An overarching scientific challenge for the coming decade is to discover the meaning of confinement, its relationship to dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (DCSB) - the origin of visible mass - and the connection between them. In progressing toward meeting this challenge, significant progress has been made using continuum methods in QCD. For example, a novel understanding of gluon and quark confinement and its consequences has begun to emerge from quantum field theory; a clear picture is being drawn of how hadron masses emerge dynamically in a universe with light quarks; and ground-state hadron wave functions with a direct connection to QCD are becoming available, which reveal that quark-quark correlations are crucial in hadron structure. There is growing experimental support for this body of predictions in both elastic and nucleon-to-resonance-transition form factors.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Three Lectures on Hadron Physics

These lectures explain that comparisons between experiment and theory can expose the impact of running couplings and masses on hadron observables and thereby aid materially in charting the momentum dependence of the interaction that underlies strong-interaction dynamics. The series begins with a primer on continuum QCD, which introduces some of the basic ideas necessary in order to understand the use of Schwinger functions as a nonperturbative tool in hadron physics. It continues with a discussion of confinement and dynamical symmetry breaking (DCSB) in the Standard Model, and the impact of these phenomena on our understanding of condensates, the parton structure of hadrons, and the pion electromagnetic form factor. The final lecture treats the problem of grand unification; namely, the contemporary use of Schwinger functions as a symmetry-preserving tool for the unified explanation and prediction of the properties of both mesons and baryons. It reveals that DCSB drives the formation of diquark clusters in baryons and sketches a picture of baryons as bound-states with Borromean character. Planned experiments are capable of validating the perspectives outlined in these lectures.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Understanding the nucleon as a Borromean bound-state

Analyses of the three valence-quark bound-state problem in relativistic quantum field theory predict that the nucleon may be understood primarily as a Borromean bound-state, in which binding arises mainly from two separate effects. One originates in non-Abelian facets of QCD that are expressed in the strong running coupling and generate confined but strongly-correlated colour-antitriplet diquark clusters in both the scalar-isoscalar and pseudovector-isotriplet channels. That attraction is magnified by quark exchange associated with diquark breakup and reformation. Diquark clustering is driven by the same mechanism which dynamically breaks chiral symmetry in the Standard Model. It has numerous observable consequences, the complete elucidation of which requires a framework that also simultaneously expresses the running of the coupling and masses in the strong interaction. Planned experiments are capable of validating this picture.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Completing the picture of the Roper resonance

We employ a continuum approach to the three valence-quark bound-state problem in relativistic quantum field theory to predict a range of properties of the proton's radial excitation and thereby unify them with those of numerous other hadrons. Our analysis indicates that the nucleon's first radial excitation is the Roper resonance. It consists of a core of three dressed-quarks, which expresses its valence-quark content and whose charge radius is 80% larger than the proton analogue. That core is complemented by a meson cloud, which reduces the observed Roper mass by roughly 20%. The meson cloud materially affects long-wavelength characteristics of the Roper electroproduction amplitudes but the quark core is revealed to probes with $Q^2 \gtrsim 3 m_N^2$.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Kaon and pion parton distribution amplitudes to twist-three

We compute all kaon and pion parton distribution amplitudes (PDAs) to twist-three and find that only the pseudotensor PDA can reasonably be approximated by its conformal limit expression. At terrestrially accessible energy scales, the twist-two and pseudoscalar twist-three PDAs differ significantly from those functions commonly associated with their forms in QCD's conformal limit. In all amplitudes studied, SU(3) flavour-symmetry breaking is typically a 13% effect. This scale is determined by nonperturbative dynamics; namely, the current-quark-mass dependence of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. The heavier-quark is favoured by this distortion, for example, support is shifted to the s-quark in the negative kaon. It appears, therefore, that at energy scales accessible with existing and foreseeable facilities, one may obtain reliable expectations for experimental outcomes by using these "strongly dressed" PDAs in formulae for hard exclusive processes. Following this procedure, any discrepancies between experiment and theory will be significantly smaller than those produced by using the conformal-limit PDAs. Moreover, the magnitude of any disagreement will either be a better estimate of higher-order, higher-twist effects or provide more realistic constraints on the Standard Model.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

QCD and Hadron Physics

This document presents the recommendations and scientific conclusions from the Town Meeting on QCD and Hadronic Physics that took place in the period 13-15 September 2014 at Temple University as part of the NSAC 2014 Long Range Planning process. It highlights progress in hadron physics in the seven years since the 2007 Long Range Plan (LRP07), and presents a vision for the future by identifying key questions and plausible paths to solutions which should define our next decade. In defining the priority of outstanding physics opportunities for the future, both prospects for the short (roughly 5 years) and longer term (beyond 10 years) are identified together with the facilities, personnel and other resources needed to maximize the discovery potential in hadronic physics worldwide. In this connection, the potential of an electron ion collider is highlighted.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Hadron Physics and QCD: Just the Basic Facts

With discovery of the Higgs boson, the Standard Model of Particle Physics became complete. Its formulation is a remarkable story; and the process of verification is continuing, with the most important chapter being the least well understood. Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is that part of the Standard Model which is supposed to describe all of nuclear physics and yet, almost fifty years after the discovery of quarks, we are only just beginning to understand how QCD moulds the basic bricks for nuclei: pious, neutrons, protons. QCD is characterized by two emergent phenomena: confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (DCSB), whose implications are extraordinary. This contribution describes how DCSB, not the Higgs boson, generates more than 98% of the visible mass in the Universe, explains why confinement guarantees that condensates, those quantities that were commonly viewed as constant mass-scales that fill all spacetime, are instead wholly contained within hadrons, and elucidates a range of observable consequences of confinement and DCSB whose measurement is the focus of a vast international experimental programme.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2014

Nucleon tensor charges and electric dipole moments

A symmetry-preserving Dyson-Schwinger equation treatment of a vector-vector contact interaction is used to compute dressed-quark-core contributions to the nucleon $σ$-term and tensor charges. The latter enable one to directly determine the effect of dressed-quark electric dipole moments (EDMs) on neutron and proton EDMs. The presence of strong scalar and axial-vector diquark correlations within ground-state baryons is a prediction of this approach. These correlations are active participants in all scattering events and thereby modify the contribution of the singly-represented valence-quark relative to that of the doubly-represented quark. Regarding the proton $σ$-term and that part of the proton mass which owes to explicit chiral symmetry breaking, with a realistic $d$-$u$ mass splitting the singly-represented $d$-quark contributes 37% more than the doubly-represented $u$-quark; and in connection with the proton's tensor charges, $δ_T u$, $δ_T d$, the ratio $δ_T d/δ_T u$ is 18% larger than anticipated from simple quark models. Of particular note, the size of $δ_T u$ is a sensitive measure of the strength of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking; and $δ_T d$ measures the amount of axial-vector diquark correlation within the proton, vanishing if such correlations are absent.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2014

Bridging a gap between continuum-QCD and ab initio predictions of hadron observables

Within contemporary hadron physics there are two common methods for determining the momentum-dependence of the interaction between quarks: the top-down approach, which works toward an ab initio computation of the interaction via direct analysis of the gauge-sector gap equations; and the bottom-up scheme, which aims to infer the interaction by fitting data within a well-defined truncation of those equations in the matter sector that are relevant to bound-state properties. We unite these two approaches by demonstrating that the renormalisation-group-invariant running-interaction predicted by contemporary analyses of QCD's gauge sector coincides with that required in order to describe ground-state hadron observables using a nonperturbative truncation of QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations in the matter sector. This bridges a gap that had lain between nonperturbative continuum-QCD and the ab initio prediction of bound-state properties.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2014

Nucleon and $Δ$ elastic and transition form factors

We compute nucleon and Delta elastic and transition form factors, and compare predictions made using a framework built upon a Faddeev equation kernel and interaction vertices that possess QCD-like momentum dependence with results obtained using a vector-vector contact-interaction. The comparison emphasises that experiment is sensitive to the momentum dependence of the running couplings and masses in the strong interaction sector of the Standard Model and highlights that the key to describing hadron properties is a veracious expression of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in the bound-state problem. Amongst the results we describe, the following are of particular interest: $G_E^p(Q^2)/G_M^p(Q^2)$ possesses a zero at $Q^2=9.5GeV^2$; any change in the interaction which shifts a zero in the proton ratio to larger $Q^2$ relocates a zero in $G_E^n(Q^2)/G_M^n(Q^2)$ to smaller $Q^2$; and there is likely a value of momentum transfer above which $G_E^n>G_E^p$. Regarding the $Δ(1232)$-baryon, we find that, inter alia: the electric monopole form factor exhibits a zero; the electric quadrupole form factor is negative, large in magnitude, and sensitive to the nature and strength of correlations in the $Δ(1232)$ Faddeev amplitude; and the magnetic octupole form factor is negative so long as rest-frame P- and D-wave correlations are included. In connection with the N-to-Delta transition, the momentum-dependence of the magnetic transition form factor, $G_M^\ast$, matches that of $G_M^n$ once the momentum transfer is high enough to pierce the meson-cloud; and the electric quadrupole ratio is a keen measure of diquark and orbital angular momentum correlations.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2014

Basic features of the pion valence-quark distribution function

The impulse-approximation expression used hitherto to define the pion's valence-quark distribution function is flawed because it omits contributions from the gluons which bind quarks into the pion. A corrected leading-order expression produces the model-independent result that quarks dressed via the rainbow-ladder truncation, or any practical analogue, carry all the pion's light-front momentum at a characteristic hadronic scale. Corrections to the leading contribution may be divided into two classes, responsible for shifting dressed-quark momentum into glue and sea-quarks. Working with available empirical information, we use an algebraic model to express the principal impact of both classes of corrections. This enables a realistic comparison with experiment that allows us to highlight the basic features of the pion's measurable valence-quark distribution, $q^π(x)$; namely, at a characteristic hadronic scale, $q^π(x) \sim (1-x)^2$ for $x\gtrsim 0.85$; and the valence-quarks carry approximately two-thirds of the pion's light-front momentum.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2014

Flavour symmetry breaking in the kaon parton distribution amplitude

We compute the kaon's valence-quark (twist-two parton) distribution amplitude (PDA) by projecting its Poincare'-covariant Bethe-Salpeter wave-function onto the light-front. At a scale ζ=2GeV, the PDA is a broad, concave and asymmetric function, whose peak is shifted 12-16% away from its position in QCD's conformal limit. These features are a clear expression of SU(3)-flavour-symmetry breaking. They show that the heavier quark in the kaon carries more of the bound-state's momentum than the lighter quark and also that emergent phenomena in QCD modulate the magnitude of flavour-symmetry breaking: it is markedly smaller than one might expect based on the difference between light-quark current masses. Our results add to a body of evidence which indicates that at any energy scale accessible with existing or foreseeable facilities, a reliable guide to the interpretation of experiment requires the use of such nonperturbatively broadened PDAs in leading-order, leading-twist formulae for hard exclusive processes instead of the asymptotic PDA associated with QCD's conformal limit. We illustrate this via the ratio of kaon and pion electromagnetic form factors: using our nonperturbative PDAs in the appropriate formulae, $F_K/F_π=1.23$ at spacelike-$Q^2=17\,{\rm GeV}^2$, which compares satisfactorily with the value of $0.92(5)$ inferred in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation at $s=17\,{\rm GeV}^2$.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2014

Parton distribution amplitudes of light vector mesons

A rainbow-ladder truncation of QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations is used to calculate rho- and phi-meson valence-quark (twist-two parton) distribution amplitudes (PDAs) via a light-front projection of their Bethe-Salpeter wave functions, which possess S- and D-wave components of comparable size in the meson rest frame. All computed PDAs are broad concave functions, whose dilation with respect to the asymptotic distribution is an expression of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. The PDAs can be used to define an ordering of valence-quark light-front spatial-extent within mesons: this size is smallest within the pion and increases through the perp-polarisation to the parallel-polarisation of the vector mesons; effects associated with the breaking of SU(3)-flavour symmetry are significantly smaller than those associated with altering the polarisation of vector mesons. Notably, the predicted pointwise behaviour of the rho-meson PDAs is in quantitative agreement with that inferred recently via an analysis of diffractive vector-meson photoproduction experiments.

nucl-th↗