Twenty-first Century Lattice Gauge Theory: Results from the QCD Lagrangian

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent lattice gauge theory results derived directly from the QCD Lagrangian, elucidating long-distance properties like hadron masses, phase structure, and their implications across particle, nuclear, and astrophysics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of nonperturbative QCD results from lattice gauge theory, connecting fundamental theory to observable phenomena.

Findings

Insights into the origin of hadron masses

Understanding of QCD phase structure

Implications for particle physics and astrophysics

Abstract

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) reduces the strong interactions, in all their variety, to a simple nonabelian gauge theory. It clearly and elegantly explains hadrons at short distances, which has led to its universal acceptance. Since its advent, however, many of its long-distance, emergent properties have been believed to be true, without having been demonstrated to be true. This paper reviews a variety of results in this regime that have been established with lattice gauge theory, directly from the QCD Lagrangian. This body of work sheds light on the origin of hadron masses, its interplay with dynamical symmetry breaking, as well as on other intriguing features such as the phase structure of QCD. In addition, nonperturbative QCD is quantitatively important to many aspects of particle physics (especially the quark flavor sector), nuclear physics, and astrophysics. This review also surveys some of the most interesting connections to those subjects.