Pion FF calculated from the a = 0.076 fm (m = 140 MeV) lattice with Wilson-clover valence quarks and HISQ sea quarks [35], compared with the experimental data from CERN [37] and the F collaboration [3]. The purple band is from the dispersion relation analysis of experimental data [38], and the blue dashed band is an extrapolation of our lattice results to larger Q2 .
The results from this INCITE project will help answer fundamental questions regarding spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in strong interactions, flavor symmetry violation, color confinement, and the origin of the mass of hadrons.
This project aims to carry out precision lattice QCD calculations of the inner structures of the pion and kaon—the Nambu-Goldstone bosons in strong interactions—in order to determine their electromagnetic form factors, Fock-space distribution amplitudes, parton distribution functions, and generalized parton distributions. These calculations are intended to provide experimental programs, such as the Jefferson Lab (JLab) 12 GeV upgrade and the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), with comparisons and predictions.
The results will help answer fundamental questions regarding spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in strong interactions, flavor symmetry violation, color confinement, and the origin of the mass of hadrons. Additionally, the distribution amplitudes are important inputs for deeply virtual meson production processes that are used to map out 3D images of the proton.
