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Keh-Fei Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Keh-Fei Liu.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Parton distributions and lattice QCD calculations: toward 3D structure

The strong force which binds hadrons is described by the theory of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Determining the character and manifestations of QCD is one of the most important and challenging outstanding issues necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the structure of hadrons. Within the context of the QCD parton picture, the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) have been remarkably successful in describing a wide variety of processes. However, these PDFs have generally been confined to the description of collinear partons within the hadron. New experiments and facilities provide the opportunity to additionally explore the transverse structure of hadrons which is described by Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) and Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution Functions (TMD PDFs). In our previous review, we compared and contrasted the two main approaches used to determine the collinear PDFs: the first based on perturbative QCD factorization theorems, and the second based on lattice QCD calculations. In the present report, we provide an update of recent progress on the collinear PDFs, and also expand the scope to encompass the generalized PDFs (GPDs and TMD PDFs). We review the current state of the various calculations, and consider what new data might be available in the near future. We also examine how a shared effort can foster dialog between the PDF and Lattice QCD communities, and yield improvements for these generalized PDFs.

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Roper State from Overlap Fermions

The Roper state is extracted with valence overlap fermions on a $2+1$-flavor domain-wall fermion lattice (spacing $a = 0.114$ fm and $m_π = 330$ MeV) using both the Sequential Empirical Bayes (SEB) method and the variational method. The results are consistent, provided that a large smearing-size interpolation operator is included in the variational calculation to have better overlap with the lowest radial excitation. Similar calculations carried out for an anisotropic clover lattice with similar parameters find the Roper $\approx 280$ MeV higher than that of the overlap fermion. The fact that the prediction of the Roper state by overlap fermions is consistently lower than those of clover fermions, chirally improved fermions, and twisted-mass fermions over a wide range of pion masses has been dubbed a "Roper puzzle." To understand the origin of this difference, we study the hairpin $Z$-diagram in the isovector scalar meson ($a_0$) correlator in the quenched approximation. Comparing the $a_0$ correlators for clover and overlap fermions, at a pion mass of 290 MeV, we find that the spectral weight of the ghost state with clover fermions is smaller than that of the overlap at $a = 0.12$ fm and $0.09$ fm, whereas the whole $a_0$ correlators of clover and overlap at $a = 0.06$ fm coincide within errors. This suggests that chiral symmetry is restored for clover at $a \le 0.06$ fm and that the Roper should come down at and below this $a$. We conclude that this work supports a resolution of the "Roper puzzle" due to $Z$-graph type chiral dynamics. This entails coupling to higher components in the Fock space (e.g. $Nπ$, $Nππ$ states) to induce the effective flavor-spin interaction between quarks as prescribed in the chiral quark model, resulting in the parity-reversal pattern as observed in the experimental excited states of $N, Δ$ and $Λ$.

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The nucleon isovector tensor charge from lattice QCD using chiral fermions

In this work we present the isovector flavor combination for the nucleon tensor charge extracted from lattice QCD simulations using overlap fermions on $N_f=2+1$ domain-wall configurations. The pion mass dependence is studied using six valence quark masses, each reproducing a value for the pion mass in the valence sector between 147 and 330 MeV. We investigate and eliminate systematic uncertainties due to contamination by excited states, by employing several values for the source-sink separation that span from 1 fm to 1.6 fm. We apply a chiral extrapolation in the valence sector using a quadratic and a logarithmic term to fit the pion mass dependence, which describes well the lattice data. The lattice matrix element is renormalized non-perturbatively, and the final result is $g_T=1.096(30)$ in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme at a renormalization scale of 2 GeV.

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Weak Neutral Current Axial Form Factor Using $(\barν)ν$-Nucleon Scattering and Lattice QCD Inputs

We present a determination of the neutral current weak axial charge $G^Z_A(0)=-0.654(3)_{\rm stat}(5)_{\rm sys}$ using the strange quark axial charge $G^s_A(0)$ calculated with lattice QCD. We then perform a phenomenological analysis, where we combine the strange quark electromagnetic form factor from lattice QCD with (anti)neutrino-nucleon scattering differential cross section from MiniBooNE experiments in a momentum transfer region $0.24\lesssim Q^2 \lesssim 0.71$ GeV$^2$ to determine the neutral current weak axial form factor $G^Z_A(Q^2)$ in the range of $0\lesssim Q^2\leq 1$ GeV$^2$. This yields a phenomenological value of $G^Z_A(0)=-0.687(89)_{\rm stat}(40)_{\rm sys}$. The value of $G^Z_A(0)$ constrained by the lattice QCD calculation of $G^s_A(0)$, when compared to its phenomenological determination, provides a significant improvement in precision and accuracy and can be used to provide a constraint on the fit to $G^Z_A(Q^2)$ for $Q^2>0$. This constrained fit leads to an unambiguous determination of (anti)neutrino-nucleon neutral current elastic scattering differential cross section near $Q^2=0$ and can play an important role in numerically isolating nuclear effects in this region. We show a consistent description of $G^Z_A(Q^2)$ obtained from the (anti)neutrino-nucleon scattering cross section data requires a nonzero contribution of the strange quark electromagnetic form factor. We demonstrate the robustness of our analysis by providing a post-diction of the BNL E734 experimental data.

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Towards the nucleon hadronic tensor from lattice QCD

We present the first calculation of the hadronic tensor on the lattice for the nucleon. The hadronic tensor can be used to extract the structure functions in deep inelastic scatterings and also provide information for the neutrino-nucleon scattering which is crucial to the neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments at low energies. The most challenging part in the calculation is to solve an inverse problem. We have implemented and tested three algorithms using mock data, showing that the Bayesian Reconstruction method has the best resolution in extracting peak structures while the Backus-Gilbert and Maximum Entropy methods are somewhat more stable for the flat spectral function. Numerical results are presented for both the elastic case (clover fermions on domain wall configuration with $m_π\sim$ 370 MeV and $a\sim$ 0.06 fm) and a case (anisotropic clover lattice with $m_π\sim$ 380 MeV and $a_t\sim$ 0.035 fm) with large momentum transfer. For the former case, the reconstructed Minkowski hadronic tensor gives precisely the vector charge which proves the feasibility of the approach. While for the latter case, the nucleon resonances and possibly shallow inelastic scattering contributions around $ν=1$ GeV are clearly observed but no information is obtained for higher excited states with $ν>2$ GeV. A check of the effective masses of $ρ$ meson with different lattice setups indicates that, in order to reach higher energy transfers, using lattices with smaller lattice spacings is essential.

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Lattice QCD and Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering

This document is one of a series of whitepapers from the USQCD collaboration. Here, we discuss opportunities for lattice QCD in neutrino-oscillation physics, which inevitably entails nucleon and nuclear structure. In addition to discussing pertinent lattice-QCD calculations of nucleon and nuclear matrix elements, the interplay with models of nuclei is discussed. This program of lattice- QCD calculations is relevant to current and upcoming neutrino experiments, becoming increasingly important on the timescale of LBNF/DUNE and HyperK.

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Coupling to Multihadron States with Chiral Fermions

Chiral symmerty is presumed to be a crucial component in the strong interaction and QCD, but its role in spectroscopy, especially for baryons, has not been fully explored. Compounding this, chiral fermions are uncommon in lattice calculations due to their expensive nature. We calculate $ηπ$, $Kπ$ and $Nπ$ states with $q\bar{q}$ and $qqq$ interpolation fields at $a=0.114\,\mathrm{fm}$ on a $48^3\times 96$ mixed-action lattice at the physical pion mass, with domain-wall sea quarks and overlap valence quarks. We study the spectral weights of these states as a function of the valence pion mass, which ranges from $m_π=115-665\,\mathrm{MeV}$, to be compared with the results from non-chiral clover valence quarks on the same domain-wall lattice in order to examine their non-chiral effects, which are expected to decrease with the lattice spacing.

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Gluon Quasi-PDF From Lattice QCD

We present the first attempt to access the $x$-dependence of the gluon unpolarized parton distribution function (PDF), based on lattice simulations using the large-momentum effective theory (LaMET) approach. The lattice calculation is carried out with pion masses of 340 and 678 MeV on a 2+1-flavor DWF configuration with lattice spacing $a=0.111$~fm, for the gluon quasi-PDF matrix element with the nucleon momentum up to 0.93 GeV. Taking the normalization from similar matrix elements in the rest frame of the nucleon and pion, our results for these matrix elements are consistent with the Fourier transform of the global fit CT14 and PDF4LHC15 NNLO of the gluon PDF, within statistical uncertainty and the systematic one up to power corrections, perturbative ${\cal O}(α_s)$ matching and the mixing from the quark PDFs.

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Lattice Calculation of Nucleon Isovector Axial Charge with Improved Currents

We employ dimension-4 operators to improve the local vector and axial-vector currents and calculate the nucleon isovector axial coupling $g^3_A$ with overlap valence on $2+1$-flavor Domain Wall Fermion sea. Using the equality of $g^3_A$ from the spatial and temporal components of the axial-vector current as a normalization condition, we find that $g_A^3$ is increased by a few percent towards the experimental value. The excited-state contamination has been taken into account with three time separations between the source and sink. The improved axial charges $g_A^{3}(24I)=1.22(4)$ and $g_A^{3}(32I)=1.21(3)$ are obtained on a $24^3\times 64$ lattice at pion mass of 330 MeV and a $32^3\times 64$ lattice at pion mass 300 MeV are increased by $3.4\%$ and $1.7\%$ from their unimproved values, respectively. We have also used clover fermion on the same DWF configurations and find the same behavior for the local axial charge as that of the overlap fermion.

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Quark spins and Anomalous Ward Identity

We calculate the intrinsic quark spin contribution to the total proton spin using overlap valence quarks on three ensembles of $2+1$-flavor RBC/UKQCD domain-wall configurations with different lattice spacings. The lowest pion mass of the ensembles is around 171 MeV which is close to the physical point. With overlap fermions and topological charge derived from the overlap operator, we verify the anomalous Ward identity between nucleon states with momentum transfer. Both the connected and disconnected insertions of the axial-vector current are calculated. For the disconnected-insertion part, the cluster-decomposition error reduction (CDER) technique is utilized for the lattice with the largest volume and the error can be reduced by $10\%\sim40\%$. Nonperturbative renormalization is carried out and the final results are all reported in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme at 2 GeV. We determine the total quark spin contribution to the nucleon spin to be $ΔΣ=0.401(25)(37)$, which is consistent with the recent global fitting result of experimental data. The isovector axial coupling we obtain in this study is $g_A^3=1.256(16)(30)$, which agrees well with the experimental value of 1.2723(23).

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Pion Form Factor with Overlap Fermion

We present a calculation of the pion form factor using overlap fermions on 2+1-flavor domain-wall configurations on a $24^3\times 64$ lattice with $a=0.11 \, {\rm{fm}}$ and on a $32^3 \times 64$ lattice with $a=0.143 \, {\rm{fm}}$ generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaboration. Using the multi-mass algorithm, a simulation has been done with various valence quark masses with a range of space-like $Q^2$ from 0.0 to 0.6 ${\rm{GeV^2}}$.

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Nonperturbatively-renormalized glue momentum fraction at physical pion mass from Lattice QCD

We present the first nonperturbatively-renormalized determination of the glue momentum fraction $\langle x \rangle_g$ in the nucleon, based on lattice-QCD simulations at physical pion mass using the cluster-decomposition error reduction (CDER) technique. We provide the first practical strategy to renormalize the glue energy-momentum tensor (EMT) nonperturbatively in the RI/MOM scheme, and convert the results to the $\overline{\textrm{MS}}$ scheme with 1-loop matching. The simulation results show that the CDER technique can reduce the statistical uncertainty of its renormalization constant by a factor of ${\cal O}$(300) in calculations using typical state-of-the-art lattice volume, and the nonperturbatively-renormalized $\langle x \rangle_g$ is shown to be independent of the lattice definitions of the glue EMT up to discretization errors. We determine the renormalized $\langle x \rangle_g^{\overline{\textrm{MS}}}(2\textrm{ GeV})$ to be 0.47(4)(11) at physical pion mass, which is consistent with the experimentally-determined value.

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Proton Mass Decomposition from the QCD Energy Momentum Tensor

We report results on the proton mass decomposition and also on related quark and glue momentum fractions. The results are based on overlap valence fermions on four ensembles of $N_f = 2+1$ DWF configurations with three lattice spacings and three volumes, and several pion masses including the physical pion mass. With fully non-perturbative renormalization (and universal normalization on both quark and gluon), we find that the quark energy and glue field energy contribute 33(4)(4)\% and 37(5)(4)\% respectively in the $\overline{MS}$ scheme at $μ= 2$ GeV. A quarter of the trace anomaly gives a 23(1)(1)\% contribution to the proton mass based on the sum rule, given 9(2)(1)\% contribution from the $u, d,$ and $s$ quark scalar condensates. The $u,d,s$ and glue momentum fractions in the $\overline{MS}$ scheme are in good agreement with global analyses at $μ= 2$ GeV.

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Variance Reduction and Cluster Decomposition

It is a common problem in lattice QCD calculation of the mass of the hadron with an annihilation channel that the signal falls off in time while the noise remains constant. In addition, the disconnected insertion calculation of the three-point function and the calculation of the neutron electric dipole moment with the $θ$ term suffer from a noise problem due to the $\sqrt{V}$ fluctuation. We identify these problems to have the same origin and the $\sqrt{V}$ problem can be overcome by utilizing the cluster decomposition principle. We demonstrate this by considering the calculations of the glueball mass, the strangeness content in the nucleon, and the CP violation angle in the nucleon due to the $θ$ term. It is found that for lattices with physical sizes of 4.5 - 5.5 fm, the statistical errors of these quantities can be reduced by a factor of 3 to 4. The systematic errors can be estimated from the Akaike information criterion. For the strangeness content, we find that the systematic error is of the same size as that of the statistical one when the cluster decomposition principle is utilized. This results in a 2 to 3 times reduction in the overall error.

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Parton distributions and lattice QCD calculations: a community white paper

In the framework of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), parton distribution functions (PDFs) quantify how the momentum and spin of a hadron are divided among its quark and gluon constituents. Two main approaches exist to determine PDFs. The first approach, based on QCD factorization theorems, realizes a QCD analysis of a suitable set of hard-scattering measurements, often using a variety of hadronic observables. The second approach, based on first-principle operator definitions of PDFs, uses lattice QCD to compute directly some PDF-related quantities, such as their moments. Motivated by recent progress in both approaches, in this document we present an overview of lattice-QCD and global-analysis techniques used to determine unpolarized and polarized proton PDFs and their moments. We provide benchmark numbers to validate present and future lattice-QCD calculations and we illustrate how they could be used to reduce the PDF uncertainties in current unpolarized and polarized global analyses. This document represents a first step towards establishing a common language between the two communities, to foster dialogue and to further improve our knowledge of PDFs.

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Sea Quarks Contribution to the Nucleon Magnetic Moment and Charge Radius at the Physical Point

We report a comprehensive analysis of the light and strange disconnected-sea quarks contribution to the nucleon magnetic moment, charge radius, and the electric and magnetic form factors. The lattice QCD calculation includes ensembles across several lattice volumes and lattice spacings with one of the ensembles at the physical pion mass. We adopt a model-independent extrapolation of the nucleon magnetic moment and the charge radius. We have performed a simultaneous chiral, infinite volume, and continuum extrapolation in a global fit to calculate results in the continuum limit. We find that the combined light and strange disconnected-sea quarks contribution to the nucleon magnetic moment is $μ_M\,(\text{DI})=-0.022(11)(09)\,μ_N$ and to the nucleon mean square charge radius is $\langle r^2\rangle_E\,\text{(DI)}=-0.019(05)(05)$ fm$^2$ which is about $1/3$ of the difference between the $\langle r_p^2\rangle_E$ of electron-proton scattering and that of muonic atom and so cannot be ignored in obtaining the proton charge radius in the lattice QCD calculation. The most important outcome of this lattice QCD calculation is that while the combined light-sea and strange quarks contribution to the nucleon magnetic moment is small at about $1\%$, a negative $2.5(9)\%$ contribution to the proton mean square charge radius and a relatively larger positive $16.3(6.1)\%$ contribution to the neutron mean square charge radius come from the sea quarks in the nucleon. For the first time, by performing global fits, we also give predictions of the light and strange disconnected-sea quarks contributions to the nucleon electric and magnetic form factors at the physical point and in the continuum and infinite volume limits in the momentum transfer range of $0\leq Q^2\leq 0.5$ GeV$^2$.

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Comment on `Nucleon Structure Functions from Operator Product Expansion on the Lattice'

It is suggested in the paper by A.J. Chambers {\it et al.} (Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 242001 (2017), arXiv:1703.01153) that the time-ordered current-curent correlator in the nucleon calculated on the lattice is to be identified as the forward Compton amplitude so that it is related to the sum of the even moments of the structure function as in the Minkowski space in the continuum. We point out two problems with this identification. First of all, the current-current correlator defined in the Euclidean space is not analytic everywhere on the rest of the complex $ν$ or $ω$ plane, besides the cuts on the real axis. As such, there is no dispersion relation to relate it to its imaginary part and hence the moments of the structure function. On the lattice, there is an additional difficulty in that the higher dimensional local operators from the operator production expansion (OPE) of the current-current product can mix with lower dimensional higher-twist operators which leads to divergences in the powers of inverse lattice spacing. This mixing needs to be removed before their matrix elements can be identified as the moments of the structure function.

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RI/MOM and RI/SMOM renormalization of overlap quark bilinears on domain wall fermion configurations

Renormalization constants (RCs) of overlap quark bilinear operators on 2+1-flavor domain wall fermion configurations are calculated by using the RI/MOM and RI/SMOM schemes. The scale independent RC for the axial vector current is computed by using a Ward identity. Then the RCs for the quark field and the vector, tensor, scalar and pseudoscalar operators are calculated in both the RI/MOM and RI/SMOM schemes. The RCs are converted to the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme and we compare the numerical results from using the two intermediate schemes. The lattice size is $48^3\times96$ and the inverse spacing $1/a = 1.730(4) {\rm~GeV}$.

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