Nuclear Properties and Interactions from Lattice QCD

原子核是从量子色动力学(QCD)--强相互作用的基本理论--中产生的最复杂的系统之一，定量地理解它们的出现具有重要的意义。这一目标现在才刚刚开始在实践中实现，使用晶格QCD和有效场论方法。拟议项目的重点是获得基本核相互作用的物理预测和具有受控不确定性的性质--主要产生于对物理夸克质量和连续统极限的外推--系统地说明了这些不确定性。这项研究计划重点回答的核物理问题包括：哪些二重子和三重子系统是束缚的，它们的结合能是什么？有没有涉及超子的三体束缚系统？什么是低能超子-超子和超子-核子相移，这些量的知识将如何帮助解开超子和超核在致密物质中的作用，例如可能出现在中子星核心中的超子和超核？这项研究将利用计算技术的进步和最近才使这一努力成为可能的理论物理的发展，帮助在原子核的长期观测性质和被认为为这些观测提供基础的理论框架之间提供联系。研究生培训是该项目不可分割的一部分，将提供理论物理和前沿计算方法方面的教育。

Nuclei are among the most complex systems that emerge from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental theory of the strong interaction, and it is of great importance to understand their emergence quantitatively. This goal is only now beginning to be realized in practice using Lattice QCD and effective field theory methods. The focus of the proposed project is on obtaining physical predictions for basic nuclear interactions and properties with controlled uncertainties - arising primarily from extrapolation to the physical quark masses and to the continuum limit - accounted for systematically. Among the nuclear physics questions that this research project is focused on answering are: Which two- and three-baryon systems are bound and what are their binding energies? Are there three-body bound systems involving hyperons? What are the low-energy hyperon-hyperon and hyperon-nucleon phase shifts, and how will knowledge of these quantities help unravel the role of hyperons and hypernuclei in dense matter such as might occur in the core of neutron stars? This research will help provide a link between long-observed properties of atomic nuclei and the theoretical framework that is believed to provide a basis for these observations, by taking advantages of advances in computing technology and developments in theoretical physics that have only recently made this effort possible. Graduate student training forms an integral part of this project, and will provide education in theoretical physics as well as forefront computing methods.