Ab-initio Determination of Light Hadron Masses

TL;DR

This paper presents a first-principles calculation of light hadron masses using lattice QCD, confirming the Standard Model's explanation for the mass of protons and neutrons with high precision.

Contribution

It provides the first ab-initio lattice QCD calculation of light hadron masses that fully agrees with experimental data, with controlled uncertainties.

Findings

Results match experimental hadron masses

Confirmed Standard Model predictions

Achieved controlled extrapolations

Abstract

More than 99% of the mass of the visible universe is made up of protons and neutrons. Both particles are much heavier than their quark and gluon constituents, and the Standard Model of particle physics should explain this difference. We present a full ab-initio calculation of the masses of protons, neutrons and other light hadrons, using lattice quantum chromodynamics. Pion masses down to 190 mega electronvolts are used to extrapolate to the physical point with lattice sizes of approximately four times the inverse pion mass. Three lattice spacings are used for a continuum extrapolation. Our results completely agree with experimental observations and represent a quantitative confirmation of this aspect of the Standard Model with fully controlled uncertainties.