Engineering topics

Roberts, Craig D.

Publications and source records attributed to Roberts, Craig D..

At least 19 records

DOE OSTI2024

Nature's Strongest Force

The strongest force in the universe is called, aptly, the strong force. We never get to witness its fearsome power because it works only across subatomic distances, where it binds quarks together inside protons and neutrons and joins those nucleons into atomic nuclei. Of the four basic forces of nature, the strong force is by far the most potent—it’s 100 trillion trillion trillion times stronger than the force of gravity. Additionally, it’s also the most mysterious.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2023

QCD running couplings and effective charges

Here we discuss our present knowledge of $\alpha_s$, the fundamental running coupling or effective charge of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). A precise understanding of the running of $\alpha_s(Q^2) $ at high momentum transfer, $Q$, is necessary for any perturbative QCD calculation. Equally important, the behavior of $\alpha_s$} at low $Q^2$ in the nonperturbative QCD domain is critical for understanding strong interaction phenomena, including the emergence of mass and quark confinement. The behavior of $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ at all momentum transfers also provides a connection between perturbative and nonperturbative QCD phenomena, such as hadron spectroscopy and dynamics. We first sketch the origin of the QCD coupling, the reason why its magnitude depends on the scale at which hadronic phenomena are probed, and the resulting consequences for QCD phenomenology. We then summarize latest measurements in both the perturbative and nonperturbative domains. New theory developments include the derivation of the universal nonperturbative behavior of $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ from both the Dyson-Schwinger equations and light-front holography. We also describe theory advances for the calculation of gluon and quark Schwinger functions in the nonperturbative domain and the relation of these quantities to $\alpha_s$. We conclude by highlighting how the nonperturbative knowledge of $\alpha_s$ is now providing a parameter-free determination of hadron spectroscopy and structure, a central and long-sought goal of QCD studies.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Artificial dynamical effects in quantum field theory

In Newtonian mechanics, studying a system in a non-Galilean reference frame can lead to inertial pseudoforces appearing, such as the centrifugal force that seems to arise in dynamics analysed in a rotating frame. Likewise, artificial effects may arise in relativistic quantum field theory (QFT) if a system is studied in a framework that violates Poincaré invariance. Here, we highlight how such issues complicate the traditional canonical quantization of QFTs and can lead to a subjective description of natural phenomena. By contrast, the treatment of the same problem using light-front quantization is free from spurious pseudoeffects because Poincaré invariance is effectively preserved for all practical intents and purposes. We illustrate these statements using several examples: the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn (GDH) relation, a fundamental feature of QFT; the absence of any measurable impact of Lorentz contraction in high-energy collisions; and the fictitious character of vacuum fluctuation contributions to the cosmological constant.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2021

Insights into the emergence of mass from studies of pion and kaon structure

There are two mass generating mechanisms in the standard model of particle physics (SM). One is related to the Higgs boson and fairly well understood. The other is embedded in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the SM’s strong interaction piece; and although responsible for emergence of the roughly 1 GeV mass scale that characterises the proton and hence all observable matter, the source and impacts of this emergent hadronic mass (EHM) remain puzzling. As bound states seeded by a valence-quark and -antiquark, pseudoscalar mesons present a simpler problem in quantum field theory than that associated with the nucleon. Consequently, there is a large array of robust predictions for pion and kaon properties whose empirical validation will provide a clear window onto many effects of both mass generating mechanisms and the constructive interference between them. This has now become significant because new-era experimental facilities, in operation, construction, or planning, are capable of conducting such tests and thereby contributing greatly to resolving the puzzles of EHM. These aspects of experiment, phenomenology, and theory, along with contemporary successes and challenges, are reviewed herein. In addition to providing an overview of the experimental status, we focus on recent progress made using continuum Schwinger function methods and lattice-regularised QCD. Further, advances made using other theoretical tools are also sketched. Our primary goal is to highlight the potential gains that can accrue from a coherent effort aimed at finally reaching an understanding of the character and structure of Nature’s Nambu–Goldstone modes.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Pion and kaon structure at the electron-ion collider

Understanding the origin and dynamics of hadron structure and in turn that of atomic nuclei is a central goal of nuclear physics. Here, this challenge entails the questions of how does the roughly 1 GeV mass-scale that characterizes atomic nuclei appear; why does it have the observed value; and, enigmatically, why are the composite Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) abnormally light in comparison? In this perspective, we provide an analysis of the mass budget of the pion and proton in QCD; discuss the special role of the kaon, which lies near the boundary between dominance of strong and Higgs mass-generation mechanisms; and explain the need for a coherent effort in QCD phenomenology and continuum calculations, in exa-scale computing as provided by lattice QCD, and in experiments to make progress in understanding the origins of hadron masses and the distribution of that mass within them. We compare the unique capabilities foreseen at the electron-ion collider (EIC) with those at the hadron-electron ring accelerator (HERA), the only previous electron-proton collider; and describe five key experimental measurements, enabled by the EIC and aimed at delivering fundamental insights that will generate concrete answers to the questions of how mass and structure arise in the pion and kaon, the Standard Model's NG modes, whose surprisingly low mass is critical to the evolution of our Universe.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Spectrum and structure of octet and decuplet baryons and their positive-parity excitations

A continuum approach to the three-valence-quark bound-state problem in quantum field theory, employing parametrizations of the necessary kernel elements, is used to compute the spectrum and Poincare-covariant wave functions for all flavor- SU (3) octet and decuplet baryons and their first positive-parity excitations. Such analyses predict the existence of nonpointlike, dynamical quark-quark (diquark) correlations within all baryons; and a uniformly sound description of the systems studied is obtained by retaining flavor-antitriplet-scalar and flavor-sextet-pseudovector diquarks. Thus constituted, the rest-frame wave function of every system studied is primarily S wave in character; and the fast positive-parity excitation of each octet or decuplet baryon exhibits the characteristics of a radial excitation. Importantly, every ground-state octet and decuplet baryon possesses a radial excitation. Hence, the analysis predicts the existence and masses of positive-parity excitations of the Ξ, Ξ*, and Ω baryons, states which have not yet been empirically identified. This body of analysis suggests that the expression of emergent mass generation is the same in all u , d , and s baryons and, notably, that dynamical quark-quark correlations play an essential role in the structure of each one. Furthermore, it also provides the basis for developing an array of predictions that can be tested in new generation experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Masses of ground-state mesons and baryons, including those with heavy quarks

Using a confining, symmetry-preserving regularization of a vector x vector contact interaction, we compute the spectra of ground-state pseudoscalar and vector of ($f$$\bar{g}$) mesons, scalar and axial-vector ($fg$) diquarks, and $J^{P}$ = 1/2(+), 3/2(+) ($fgh$) baryons, where $f, g, h$ is an element of {$u, d, s, c, b$}. The diquark correlations are essentially dynamical and play a key role in formulating and solving the three-valence-quark baryon problems. The baryon spectrum obtained from this largely algebraic approach reproduces the 22 known experimental masses with an accuracy of 2.9(2.4)%. It also possesses the richness of states typical of constituent-quark models, predicting many heavy-quark baryons not yet observed. This study indicates that diquark correlations are an important component of all baryons; and owing to the dynamical character of the diquarks, it is typically the lightest allowed diquark correlation that defines the most important component of a baryon's Faddeev amplitude.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

New perspective on hybrid mesons

We introduce a novel approach to the hybrid-meson (valence-gluon+quark+antiquark) bound-state problem in relativistic quantum field theory. Exploiting the existence of strong two-body correlations in the gluon-quark, q g = [gq], and gluon-antiquark, $\overline{q}_g$= [g$\overline{q}$] channels, we argue that a sound description of hybrids can be obtained by solving a coupled pair of effectively two-body equations; and, consequently, that hybrids may be viewed as highly correlated $q_g\overline{q}$ ↔$q\overline{q}_g$ bound states. Analogies may be drawn between this picture of hybrid structure and that of baryons, in which diquark (quark+quark) correlations play a key role. The potential of this formulation is illustrated by calculating the spectrum of light-quark isovector hybrid mesons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Colloquium: Roper resonance: Toward a solution to the fifty year puzzle

Discovered in 1963, the Roper resonance appears to be an exact copy of the proton except that its mass is 50% greater and it is unstable. These features of the Roper have been very difficult to explain so that for half a century this lightest excited state of the proton has defied understanding. The last decade has presented a new challenge, viz. precise information on the proton-to-Roper electroproduction transition form factors. Reaching to momentum transfer Q 2 ≈ 4.5 GeV 2 , the data probe a domain within which hard valence-quark degrees of freedom could be expected to determine form factor behavior. An explanation of the Roper should combine an understanding of all these things. This is a prodigious task, but a ten-year international collaborative effort, involving experimentalists and theorists, has presented a candidate solution to the puzzle. Namely, the observed Roper is at the heart of the proton’s first radial excitation, consisting of a dressed-quark core augmented by a meson cloud that reduces the core mass by approximately 20% and materially alters its electroproduction form factors on Q 2 < 2 m N 2 , where m N is the proton’s mass. This Colloquium describes the experimental developments which enabled electroproduction data to be procured within a domain that is the purview of strong quantum chromodynamics, thereby providing challenges and opportunities for modern theory, and surveys the developments in reaction models and QCD theory that have enabled this picture of the Roper resonance to be drawn.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Nucleon-to-Roper electromagnetic transition form factors at large Q 2

High-precision nucleon-resonance electroproduction data on a large kinematic domain of energy and momentum transfer have proven crucial in revealing novel features of strong interactions within the Standard Model and unfolding structural details of baryon excited states. Thus, in anticipation of new data reaching to unprecedented photon virtuality, we employ a quark-diquark approximation to the three-valence-quark bound-state problem to compute γ*p → R + and γ*n → R 0 transition form factors on Q 2 /m 2 N ϵ[0,12], where m N is the nucleon mass. Having simultaneously analyzed both charged and neutral channels, we also provide a quark-flavor separation of the transition form factors. Furthermore, the results should be useful in planning new-generation experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

γ * γ → η , η ' transition form factors

Using a continuum approach to the hadron bound-state problem, we calculate γ*γ → η, η' transition form factors on the entire domain of spacelike momenta, for comparison with existing experiments and in anticipation of new precision data from next-generation e + e - colliders. One novel feature is a model for the contribution to the Bethe-Salpeter kernel deriving from the non-Abelian anomaly, an element which is crucial for any computation of η, η' properties. The study also delivers predictions for the amplitudes that describe the light- and strange-quark distributions within the η, η'. Our results compare favourably with available data. Important to this at large-Q 2 is a sound understanding of QCD evolution, which has a visible impact on the η' in particular. In conclusion, our analysis also provides some insights into the properties of η, η' mesons and associated observable manifestations of the non-Abelian anomaly.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Mass dependence of pseudoscalar meson elastic form factors

A continuum approach to quark-antiquark bound-states is used to determine the electromagnetic form factors of pion-like mesons with masses m 0- /GeV = 0.14, 0.47, 0.69, 0.83 on a spacelike domain that extends to Q 2 ≲ 10 GeV 2 . The results enable direct comparisons with contemporary lattice-QCD calculations of heavy-pion form factors at large values of momentum transfer and aid in understanding them. Finally, they also reveal, inter alia, that the form factor of the physical pion provides the best opportunity for verification of the factorised hard-scattering formula relevant to this class of exclusive processes and that this capacity diminishes steadily as the meson mass becomes heavier.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Process-Independent Effective Coupling from QCD Green's Functions to Phenomenology

This article reports on a very recent proposal for a new type of process-independent QCD effective charge (Binosi et al. in Phys Rev D 96(5):054026, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.054026) defined, as an anologue of the Gell-Mann-Low effective charge in QCD, on the ground of nothing but the knowledge of the gauge-field two-point Green's function, albeit modified within a particular computational framework; namely, the combination of pinch technique and background field method which makes possible a systematic rearranging of classes of diagrams in order to redefine the Green's function and have them obey linear QED-like Slavnov-Taylor identities. We have here calculated that effective charge, shown how strikingly well it compares to a process-dependent effective charge based on the Bjorken sum rule; and, finally, employed it in an exploratory calculation of the proton electromagnetic form factor in the hard scattering regime.

confinement↗

DOE OSTI2018

Proton tensor charges from a Poincaré-covariant Faddeev equation

The proton’s tensor charges are calculated at leading order in a symmetry-preserving truncation of all matter-sector equations relevant to the associated bound-state and scattering problems. In particular, the nucleon three-body bound-state equation is solved without using a diquark approximation of the two-body scattering kernel. The computed charges are similar to those obtained in contemporary simulations of lattice-regularized quantum chromodynamics, an outcome which increases the tension between theory and phenomenology. Curiously, the theoretical calculations produce a value of the scale-invariant ratio (–δ T d/δ T u) which matches that obtained in simple quark models, even though the individual charges are themselves different. As a result, the proton's tensor charges can be used to constrain extensions of the Standard Model using empirical limits on nucleon electric dipole moments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2018

{ital N}* Structure and Strong QCD

In attempting to match QCD with Nature, it is necessary to confront the many complexities of strong, nonlinear dynamics in relativistic quantum field theory, e.g. the loss of particle number conservation, the frame and scale dependence of the explanations and interpretations of observable processes, and the evolving character of the relevant degrees-of-freedom. The peculiarities of QCD ensure that it is also the only known fundamental theory with the capacity to sustain massless elementary degrees-of-freedom, gluons and quarks; and yet gluons and quarks are predicted to acquire mass dynamically so that the only massless systems in QCD are its composite Nambu-Goldstone bosons. All other everyday bound states possess nuclear-size masses, far in excess of anything that can directly be tied to the Higgs boson. These observations highlight fundamental questions within the Standard Model: what is the source of the mass for the vast bulk of visible matter in the Universe, how is its appearance connected with confinement; how is this mass distributed within hadrons and does the distribution differ from one hadron to another? This contribution sketches insights drawn using modern methods for the continuum bound-state problem in QCD, and how they have been informed by empirical information on the hadron spectrum and nucleon-to-resonance transition form factors.

Roberts, Craig D.↗

DOE OSTI2018

Poincaré-covariant analysis of heavy-quark baryons

We use a symmetry-preserving truncation of meson and baryon bound-state equations in quantum field theory in order to develop a unified description of systems constituted from light and heavy quarks. In particular, we compute the spectrum and leptonic decay constants of ground-state pseudoscalar and vector mesons: q'(q) over bar, Q'(Q) over bar, with q', q = u, d, s and Q', Q = c, b, and the masses of J P = 3/2 + baryons and their first positive-parity excitations, including those containing one or more heavy quarks. This Poincare covariant analysis predicts that such baryons have a complicated angular momentum structure. For instance, the ground states are all primarily S wave in character, but each possesses P -, D - and F -wave components, with the P -wave fraction being large in the qqq states, and the first positive-parity excitation in each channel having a large D -wave component, which grows with increasing current-quark mass, but also exhibits features consistent with a radial excitation. In conclusion, the configuration space extent of all such baryons decreases as the mass of the valence-quark constituents increases.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Light-meson masses in an unquenched quark model

We perform a coupled-channels calculation of the masses of light mesons with the quantum numbers IJ P =-, (I,J) = 0,1, by including $q\bar{q}$ and ($q\bar{q}$) 2 components in a nonrelativistic chiral quark model. The coupling between two- and four-quark configurations is realized through a 3 P 0 quark-pair creation model. With the usual form of this operator, the mass shifts are large and negative, an outcome which raises serious issues of validity for the quenched quark model. Therefore, we introduce some improvements of the 3 P 0 operator in order to reduce the size of the mass shifts. By introducing two simple factors, physically well motivated, the coupling between $q\bar{q}$ and ($q\bar{q}$) 2 components is weakened, producing mass shifts that are around 10%–20% of hadron bare masses.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Pion and Kaon Valence-quark Parton Quasidistributions

Algebraic Ansatze for the Poincare-covariant Bethe-Salpeter wave functions of the pion and kaon arc used to calculate their light-front wave functions, parton distribution amplitudes, parton quasidistribution amplitudes, valence parton distribution functions, and parton quasidistribution functions (PqDFs). The light-front wave functions arc broad, concave functions, and the scale of flavor-symmetry violation in the kaon is roughly 15%, being set by the ratio of emergent masses in the s- and u-quark sectors. Parton quasidistribution amplitudes computed with longitudinal momentum P z = 1.75 GeV provide a semiquantitatively accurate representation of the objective parton distribution amplitude, but even with P z = 3 GeV, they cannot provide information about this amplitude's end point behavior. On the valence-quark domain, similar outcomes characterize PqDFs. Lastly, in this connection, however, the ratio of kaon-to-pion u-quark PqDFs is found to provide a good approximation to the true parton distribution function ratio on 0.4 ≲ x ≲ 0.8, suggesting that with existing resources computations of ratios of parton quasidistributions can yield results that support empirical comparison.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗