Nuclear Physics from Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics

TL;DR

Lattice QCD is a computational approach that enables direct calculation of nuclear physics phenomena from fundamental quantum chromodynamics, promising to enhance understanding of nuclear forces and matter.

Contribution

This paper reviews current Lattice QCD techniques, recent progress, and future prospects for calculating nuclear physics quantities directly from QCD.

Findings

Advances in computational resources will allow direct QCD calculations of nuclear processes.

Lattice QCD complements experimental nuclear physics and improves understanding of nuclear forces.

Expected progress will impact the study of matter in the universe.

Abstract

Quantum Chromodynamics and Quantum Electrodynamics, both renormalizable quantum field theories with a small number of precisely constrained input parameters, dominate the dynamics of the quarks and gluons - the underlying building blocks of protons, neutrons, and nuclei. While the analytic techniques of quantum field theory have played a key role in understanding the dynamics of matter in high energy processes, they encounter difficulties when applied to low-energy nuclear structure and reactions, and dense systems. Expected increases in computational resources into the exascale during the next decade will provide the ability to determine a range of important strong interaction processes directly from QCD using the numerical technique of Lattice QCD. This will complement the nuclear physics experimental program, and in partnership with new thrusts in nuclear many-body theory, will enable unprecedented understanding and refinement of nuclear forces and, more generally, the visible matter in our universe. In this presentation, I will discuss the state-of-the-art Lattice QCD calculations of quantities of interest in nuclear physics, progress that is expected in the near future, and the anticipated impact.