Pion valence-quark generalized parton distribution at physical pion mass

• Published in: Physics letters. B 2023-11, Vol.846 (C), p.138181, Article 138181
• Main Author: Lin, Huey-Wen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0370-2693; 1873-2445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138181

We present the first lattice-QCD x-dependent pion valence-quark generalized parton distribution (GPD) calculated directly at physical pion mass using the Large-Momentum Effective Theory (LaMET) with next-to-next-to-leading order perturbative matching correction. We use clover fermions for the valence action on 2+1+1 flavors of highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ), generated by MILC Collaboration, with lattice spacing a≈0.09 fm and box size L≈5.5 fm; the pion two-point measurements number up to O(106) with boost momentum 1.73 GeV. The pion valence distribution is renormalized in hybrid scheme with Wilson-line mass subtraction at large distances in coordinate space, followed by a procedure to match it to the MS‾ scheme. We focus on the zero-skewness limit, where the GPD has a probability-density interpretation in the longitudinal Bjorken x and the transverse impact-parameter distributions. We take the integral of our GPD functions to generate leading moment so that we can make comparisons with past lattice-QCD and experimental determinations of the pion form factors and found consistent agreement among them. We predict the higher GPD moments and reveal x-dependent tomography of the pion for the first time using lattice QCD.