Strangeness $S=-1$ hyperon-nucleon interactions: chiral effective field theory vs. lattice QCD

TL;DR

This paper compares lattice QCD simulations with chiral effective field theory for hyperon-nucleon interactions, showing that leading order chiral results align well with lattice data and highlighting the need for more precise simulations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that leading order relativistic chiral effective field theory can reasonably describe lattice QCD data for hyperon-nucleon interactions, providing a cross-validation between methods.

Findings

Chiral EFT matches lattice QCD data at leading order.

Lattice QCD simulations with pion masses up to 700 MeV are consistent with chiral predictions.

More precise lattice data are needed for better understanding.

Abstract

Hyperon-nucleon interactions serve as basic inputs to studies of hypernuclear physics and dense (neutron) stars. Unfortunately, a precise understanding of these important quantities have lagged far behind that of the nucleon-nucleon interaction due to lack of high precision experimental data. Historically, hyperon-nucleon interactions are either formulated in quark models or meson exchange models. In recent years, lattice QCD simulations and chiral effective field theory approaches start to offer new insights from first principles. In the present work, we contrast the state of art lattice QCD simulations with the latest chiral hyperon-nucleon forces and show that the leading order relativistic chiral results can already describe the lattice QCD data reasonably well. Given the fact that the lattice QCD simulations are performed with pion masses ranging from the (almost) physical point to 700 MeV, such studies provide a highly non-trivial check on both the chiral effective field theory approaches as well as lattice QCD simulations. Nevertheless more precise lattice QCD simulations are eagerly needed to refine our understanding of hyperon-nucleon interactions.