In this paper we present results for the renormalization of gauge invariant nonlocal fermion operators which contain a Wilson line, to one-loop level in lattice perturbation theory. Our calculations have been performed for Wilson/clover fermions and a wide class of Symanzik improved gluon actions.The extended nature of such 'long-link' operators results in a nontrivial renormalization, including contributions which diverge linearly as well as logarithmically with the lattice spacing, along with additional finite factors.On the lattice there is also mixing among certain subsets of these nonlocal operators; we calculate the corresponding finite mixing coefficients, which are necessary in order to disentangle individual matrix elements for each operator from lattice simulation data. Finally, extending our perturbative setup, we present non-perturbative prescriptions to extract the linearly divergent contributions.

In this work we present, for the first time, the non-perturbative renormalization for the unpolarized, helicity and transversity quasi-PDFs, in an RI' scheme. The proposed prescription addresses simultaneously all aspects of renormalization: logarithmic divergences, finite renormalization as well as the linear divergence which is present in the matrix elements of fermion operators with Wilson lines. Furthermore, for the case of the unpolarized quasi-PDFs, we describe how to eliminate the unwanted mixing with the twist-3 scalar operator. We utilize perturbation theory for the one-loop conversion factor that brings the renormalization functions to the MS-scheme at a scale of 2 GeV. We also explain how to improve the estimates on the renormalization functions by eliminating lattice artifacts. The latter can be computed in one-loop perturbation theory and to all orders in the lattice spacing. We apply the methodology for the renormalization to an ensemble of twisted mass fermions with Nf=2+1+1 dynamical light quarks, and a pion mass of around 375 MeV.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, 2 Tables, Section 3 largely expanded compared to v1. Version accepted for publication in Nucl. Phys. B (invited Frontiers Article

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 globalanalysis 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.The detailed understanding of the inner structure of nucleons is an active research field with phenomenological implications in high-energy, hadron, nuclear and astroparticle physics. Within quantum chromodynamics (QCD), information on this structure -specifically on how the nucleon's momentum and spin are divided among quarks and gluons -is encoded in parton distribution functions (PDFs).There exist two main methods to determine PDFs. 1 The first method is the global QCD analysis [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It is based on QCD factorization of physical observables, i.e. the fact that a class of hard-scattering cross-sections can be expressed as a convolution between short-distance, perturbative, matrix elements and long-distance, nonperturbative, PDFs. By combining a variety of available hard-scattering experimental data with state-of-the-art perturbative calculations, complete PDF sets, including the gluon and various combinations of quark flavors, are currently determined for protons, in both the unpolarized [13][14][15][16][17] and the polarized [18][19][20][21] case.Recent progress in global QCD analyses has been driven, on the one hand, by the increasing availability of a wealth of high-precision measurements from Jefferson Lab, HERA, RHIC, the Tevatron and the LHC and, on the other hand, by the advancement in perturbative calculations of QCD and electroweak (EW) higher-order corrections. Parton distributions are now determined with unprecedented precision, in many cases at the few-percent level. A paradigmatic illustration of this progress is provided by both the unpolarized and polarized gluon PDFs, which were affected by rather large uncertainties until recently, due to the limited experimental information available. In the unpolarized case, the gluon PDF is now constrained quite accurately from small to large x thanks to the inclusion of processes such a...

We provide an analysis of the x dependence of the bare unpolarized, helicity, and transversity isovector parton distribution functions (PDFs) from lattice calculations employing (maximally) twisted mass fermions. The x dependence of the calculated PDFs resembles the one of the phenomenological parameterizations, a feature that makes this approach very promising. Furthermore, we apply momentum smearing for the relevant matrix elements to compute the lattice PDFs and find a large improvement factor when compared to conventional Gaussian smearing. This allows us to extend the lattice computation of the distributions to higher values of the nucleon momentum, which is essential for the prospects of a reliable extraction of the PDFs in the future.

We extract parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the nucleon from lattice QCD using an ensemble of gauge field configurations simulated with light quark masses fixed to their physical values. Theoretical and algorithmic improvements that allow such a calculation include momentum smearing to reach large nucleon boosts with reduced statistical errors, nonperturbative renormalization, target mass corrections, and a novel modified matching of lattice QCD results to connect to what is extracted from experimental measurements. We give results on the unpolarized and helicity PDFs in the modified minimal subtraction scheme at a scale of 2 GeV and reproduce the main features of the experimentally determined quantities, showing an overlap for a range of Bjorken-x values. This first direct nonperturbative evaluation opens a most promising path to compute PDFs in an ab initio way on the lattice and provides a framework for investigating also a wider class of similar quantities, which require the evaluation of hadronic matrix elements of nonlocal operators.

We determine within lattice QCD the nucleon spin carried by valence and sea quarks and gluons. The calculation is performed using an ensemble of gauge configurations with two degenerate light quarks with mass fixed to approximately reproduce the physical pion mass. We find that the total angular momentum carried by the quarks in the nucleon is J uþdþs ¼ 0.408ð61Þ stat ð48Þ syst and the gluon contribution is J g ¼ 0.133ð11Þ stat ð14Þ syst , giving a total of J N ¼ 0.54ð6Þ stat ð5Þ syst that is consistent with the spin sum. For the quark intrinsic spin contribution, we obtain 1 2 ΔΣ uþdþs ¼ 0.201ð17Þ stat ð5Þ syst . All quantities are given in the modified minimal subtraction scheme at 2 GeV. The quark and gluon momentum fractions are also computed and add up to hxi uþdþs þ hxi g ¼ 0.804ð121Þ stat ð95Þ syst þ 0.267ð12Þ stat ð10Þ syst ¼ 1.07ð12Þ stat ð10Þ syst , thus satisfying the momentum sum. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.142002 Introduction.-The distribution of the proton spin among its constituent quarks and gluons has been a long-standing puzzle ever since the European Muon Collaboration showed in 1987 that only a fraction of the proton spin is carried by the quarks [1,2]. This was in sharp contrast to what one expected based on the quark model. This socalled proton spin crisis triggered rich experimental and theoretical activity. Recent experiments show that only 30% of the proton spin is carried by the quarks [3], while experiments at RHIC [4,5] on the determination of the gluon polarization in the proton point to a nonzero contribution [6]. A global fit to the most recent experimental data that includes the combined set of inclusive deep-inelastic scattering data from HERA and Drell-Yan data from Tevatron and LHC led to an improved determination of the valence quark distributions and the flavor separation of the up and down quarks [7]. The combined HERA data also provide improved constraints on the gluon distributions, but large uncertainties remain [7]. Obtaining the quark and gluon contributions to the nucleon spin and momentum fraction within lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) provides an independent input that is extremely crucial, but the computation is very challenging. This is because a complete determination must include, besides the valence, sea quark and gluon contributions that exhibit a large noise-to-signal ratio and are computationally very demanding. A first computation of the gluon spin was performed recently via the evaluation of the gluon helicity in a mixed action approach of overlap valence quarks on N f ¼ 2 þ 1 domain wall fermions that included an ensemble with pion mass 139 MeV [8]. In this Letter, we evaluate

We present results on the axial and the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon, as well as, on the first moments of the nucleon generalized parton distributions using maximally twisted mass fermions. We analyze two N f =2+1+1 ensembles having pion masses of 213 MeV and 373 MeV each at a different value of the lattice spacing. The lattice scale is determined using the nucleon mass computed on a total of 17 N f =2+1+1 ensembles generated at three values of the lattice spacing, a. The renormalization constants are evaluated non-perturbatively with a perturbative subtraction of O(a 2 )-terms. The moments of the generalized parton distributions are given in the MS scheme at a scale of µ = 2 GeV. We compare with recent results obtained using different discretization schemes. The implications on the spin content of the nucleon are also discussed.

Within the theory of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the rich structure of hadrons can be quantitatively characterized, among others, using a basis of universal non-perturbative functions: parton distribution functions (PDFs), generalized parton distributions (GPDs), transversemomentum dependent parton distributions (TMDs) and distribution amplitudes (DAs). For more than half a century, there has been a joint experimental and theoretical effort to obtain these partonic functions. However, the complexity of the strong interactions has placed severe limitations, and first-principle information on these distributions was extracted mostly from their moments computed in Lattice QCD. Recently, breakthrough ideas changed the landscape and several approaches were proposed to access the distributions themselves on the lattice.In this paper, we review in considerable detail approaches directly related to partonic distributions. We highlight a recent idea proposed by X. Ji on extracting quasi-distributions that spawned renewed interest in the whole field and sparked the largest amount of numerical studies within Lattice QCD. We discuss theoretical and practical developments, including challenges that had to be overcome, with some yet to be handled. We also review numerical results, including a discussion based on evolving understanding of the underlying concepts and the theoretical and practical progress. Particular attention is given to important aspects that validated the quasi-distribution approach, such as renormalization, matching to light-cone distributions and lattice techniques.In addition to a thorough discussion of quasi-distributions, we consider other approaches: hadronic tensor, auxiliary quark methods, pseudo-distributions, OPE without OPE and good lattice cross sections. In the last part of the paper, we provide a summary and prospects of the field, with emphasis on the necessary conditions to obtain results with controlled uncertainties.