The strange contribution to the electric and magnetic form factors of the nucleon is determined at a range of discrete values of Q^{2} up to 1.4 GeV^{2}. This is done by combining a recent analysis of lattice QCD results for the electromagnetic form factors of the octet baryons with experimental determinations of those quantities. The most precise result is a small negative value for the strange magnetic moment: G_{M}^{s}(Q^{2}=0)=-0.07±0.03μ_{N}. At larger values of Q^{2} both the electric and magnetic form factors are consistent with zero to within 2 standard deviations.
We present the first determination of charge symmetry violation (CSV) in the spin-dependent parton distribution functions of the nucleon. This is done by determining the first two Mellin moments of the spin-dependent parton distribution functions of the octet baryons from N_f = 2 + 1 lattice simulations. The results are compared with predictions from quark models of nucleon structure. We discuss the contribution of partonic spin CSV to the Bjorken sum rule, which is important because the CSV contributions represent the only partonic corrections to the Bjorken sum rule.
The Feynman-Hellmann (FH) relation offers an alternative way of accessing hadronic matrix elements through artificial modifications to the QCD Lagrangian. In particular, a FH-motivated method provides a new approach to calculations of disconnected contributions to matrix elements and high-momentum nucleon and pion form factors. Here we present results for the total nucleon axial charge, including a statistically significant non-negative total disconnected quark contribution of around $-5\%$ at an unphysically heavy pion mass. Extending the FH relation to finite-momentum transfers, we also present calculations of the pion and nucleon electromagnetic form factors up to momentum transfers of around 7-8 GeV$^2$. Results for the nucleon are not able to confirm the existence of a sign change for the ratio $\frac{G_E}{G_M}$, but suggest that future calculations at lighter pion masses will provide fascinating insight into this behaviour at large momentum transfers.
We calculate the disconnected contribution to the form factor for the semileptonic decay of a D-meson into a final state, containing a flavor singlet eta meson. We use QCDSF n_f=2+1 configurations at the flavor symmetric point m_u=m_d=m_s and the partially quenched approximation for the relativistic charm quark. Several acceleration and noise reduction techniques for the stochastic estimation of the disconnected loop are tested.
The structure of hadrons relevant for deep-inelastic scattering are completely characterised by the Compton amplitude. A direct calculation of the Compton amplitude in a lattice QCD setup provides a way to accessing the structure functions, circumventing the operator mixing and renormalisation issues of the standard operator product expansion approach. In this contribution, we focus on the QCDSF/UKQCD Collaboration's advances in calculating the forward Compton amplitude via an implementation of the second-order Feynman-Hellmann theorem. We highlight our progress in investigating the moments of nucleon structure functions.
We report on our lattice calculations of the nucleon's generalized parton distributions (GPDs), concentrating on their first moments for the case of N_f=2. Due to recent progress on the numerical side we are able to present results for the generalized form factors at pion masses as low as 260 MeV. We perform a fit to one-loop covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory with encouraging results.
In this paper we present results on the pseudoscalar meson masses from a fully dynamical simulation of QCD+QED, concentrating particularly on violations of isospin symmetry. We calculate the π +-π 0 splitting and also look at other isospin violating mass differences. We have presented results for these isospin splittings in [1]. In this paper we give more details of the techniques employed, discussing in particular the question of how much of the symmetry violation is due to QCD, arising from the different masses of the u and d quarks, and how much is due to QED, arising from the different charges of the quarks. This decomposition is not unique, it depends on the renormalisation scheme and scale. We suggest a renormalisation scheme in which Dashen's theorem for neutral mesons holds, so that the electromagnetic self-energies of the neutral mesons are zero, and discuss how the self-energies change when we transform to a scheme such as $$ \overline{M\ S} $$ , in which Dashen's theorem for neutral mesons is violated.
Due to improvements in computer performance and algorithms, the rapidly increasing cost for unquenched Wilson-type fermions with lighter quarks has been ameliorated and new simulations are now possible. Here we present results using two flavours of O(a)-improved Wilson fermions for meson decay constants at pseudoscalar masses down to 320MeV. Results are at several lattice spacings down to about 0.07fm and include a non-perturbative determination of the renormalisation constant. This enables us to attempt contact with (partially quenched) chiral perturbation theory.
Results are presented for the lowest moment of the distribution amplitude for the K-star vector meson. Both longitudinal and transverse moments are investigated. We use two flavours of O(a) improved Wilson fermions, together with a non-perturbative renormalisation of the matrix element.