Author: Thibaut Métivet

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

The formalism of Quantum Chromodynamics on the lattice (or Lattice QCD) allows to perform ab-initio non-perturbative studies of strong-interaction driven processes, as it provides both a covariant regularisation of the theory of QCD and a natural framework for numerical computations. In this work, after a review of the main features of QCD and a step-by-step presentation of our discretization of QCD on a lattice, we undertake detailed studies of two problems of hadronic physics: the phenomenon of resonant scattering and the structure of the nucleon. The lattice calculations are performed with the Budapest-Marseille-Wuppertal Collaboration's 2+1-flavour gauge configurations, which give access to a wide range of lattice spacings, volumes and quarks masses, thereby allowing to study the sensibility of our results on these parameters, and to perform a complete continuum extrapolation. These configurations include dynamical quarks, and use a clover-improved Wilson QCD action. To investigate the scattering of particles on the lattice, we set up a Lüscher analysis for the emblematic case of pion-pion scattering in the channel of the rho meson resonance. We analyse our data with a variational generalized eigenvalue method, and give an in-depth calculation of the scattering phase-shifts and the corresponding resonance parameters, with a full control of the systematic errors. Our results provide an important step for lattice studies of scattering states, as they are the first to be performed at the physical pion mass, where one can see the actual decay of the rho into two pions. The obtained rho meson parameters are in good agreement with the experimental values, and consistent with a weak pion mass dependence of the coupling between the rho and two pions. As for our probe of the structure of the nucleon, we present a complete extraction of the electroweak isovector form factors, with a comprehensive study of the electric charge squared radius and of the axial charge. Our analysis also feature data at the physical pion mass, which turns out to be crucial in order to perform safe extrapolations to the physical point, as the chiral perturbation theory predicts violent variations of these quantities near the massless-quarks point. Our calculation includes source and sink projections onto the nucleon state, as well as a combined fit method between the two-point and three-point correlation functions to control the contamination of our data by excited states. Although one would need more data to perform a high-accuracy determination of the nucleon radius and axial charge at the physical point with a relevant estimation of the systematic errors, the results we obtain are in good agreement with the experiment and suggest that the excited-state effects are under control. Our analysis also highlights that gauge configurations ensembles near the physical pion mass and with large volumes must be used in order to extract accurate information about the nucleon structure from lattice calculations.