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A steady stream of developments in lattice QCD have made it possible today to begin to address the question of how nuclear physics emerges from the underlying theory of strong interactions. A central role in this understanding play both the effective-field theory description of nuclear forces and the ability to perform accurate non-perturbative calculations in low-energy QCD. Here I present some recent results that attempt to extract important low-energy constants of the effective-field theory of nuclear forces from lattice QCD.

Quarkonium-nucleus systems are composed of two interacting hadronic states without common valence quarks, which interact primarily through multi-gluon exchanges, realizing a color van der Waals force. We present lattice QCD calculations of the interactions of strange and charm quarkonia with light nuclei. Both the strangeonium-nucleus and charmonium-nucleus systems are found to be relatively deeply bound when the masses of the three light quarks are set equal to that of the physical strange quark. Extrapolation of these results to the physical light-quark masses suggests that the binding energy of charmonium to nuclear matter is B < 40 MeV., published version

An analysis of the pion mass and pion decay constant is performed using mixed-action Lattice QCD calculations with domain-wall valence quarks on ensembles of rooted, staggered n_f = 2+1 MILC configurations. Calculations were performed at two lattice spacings of b~0.125 fm and b~0.09 fm, at two strange quark masses, multiple light quark masses, and a number of lattice volumes. The ratios of light quark to strange quark masses are in the range 0.1

The arena of doubly and triply heavy baryons remains experimentally unexplored to a large extent. This has led to a great deal of theoretical effort being put forth in the calculation of mass spectra in this sector. Although the detection of such heavy particle states may lie beyond the reach of experiments for some time, it is interesting to compare results between lattice QCD computations and continuum theoretical models. Several recent lattice QCD calculations exist for both doubly and triply charmed as well as doubly and triply bottom baryons. In this work we present preliminary results from the first lattice calculation of the mass spectrum of doubly and triply heavy baryons including both charm and bottom quarks. The wide range of quark masses in these systems require that the various flavors of quarks be treated with different lattice actions. We use domain wall fermions for 2+1 flavors (up down and strange) of sea and valence quarks, a relativistic heavy quark action for the charm quarks, and non-relativistic QCD for the heavier bottom quarks. The calculation of the ground state spectrum is presented and compared to recent models.

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at non-zero isospin chemical potential is studied in a canonical approach by analyzing systems of fixed isospin number density. To construct these systems, we develop a range of new algorithms for performing the factorially large numbers of Wick contractions required in multi-hadron systems. We then use these methods to study systems with the quantum numbers of up to 72 $\pi^+$'s on three ensembles of gauge configurations with spatial extents $L\sim$ 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 fm, and light quark masses corresponding to a pion mass of {390 MeV}. The ground state energies of these systems are extracted and the volume dependence of these energies is utilized to determine the two- and three- body interactions amongst $\pi^+$'s. The systems studied correspond to isospin densities of up to $\rho_I\sim 9\ {\rm fm}^{-3}$ and probe isospin chemical potentials, $\mu_I$, in the range $m_\pi\ \lsim \mu_I\ \lsim 4.5\ m_\pi$, allowing us to investigate aspects of the QCD phase diagram at low temperature and for varying isospin chemical potential. By studying the energy density of the system, we provide numerical evidence for the conjectured transition of the system to a Bose-Einstein condensed phase at $\mu_I\ \gsim m_\pi$., Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures

The π+π+ s-wave scattering phase-shift is determined below the inelastic threshold using Lattice QCD. Calculations were performed at a pion mass of mπ ≈ 390 MeV with an anisotropic nf = 2+1 clover fermion discretization in four lattice volumes, with spatial extent L ≈ 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.9 fm, and with a lattice spacing of bs ≈ 0.123 fm in the spatial direction and bt bs/3.5 in the time direction. The phase-shift is determined from the energy-eigenvalues of π+π+ systems with both zero and non-zero total momentum in the lattice volume using Luscher's method. Our calculations are precise enough to allow for a determination of the threshold scattering parameters, the scattering length a, the effective range r, and the shape-parameter P, in this channel and to examine the prediction of two-flavor chiral perturbation theory: mπ2 a r = 3+O(mπ2/Λχ2). Chiral perturbation theory is used, with the Lattice QCD results as input, to predict the scattering phase-shift (and threshold parameters) at the physical pion mass. Our results are consistent with determinations from the Roy equations and with the existing experimental phase shift data.

We study the chiral properties of quenched domain wall fermions with several gauge actions. We demonstrate that the nearly translationally invariant modes in the fifth dimension that dominate the residual mass for Wilson gauge action can be substantially suppressed using improved gauge actions. In particular, we study the Symanzik action, the Iwasaki action, the DBW2 action and compare them to the Wilson action.

We use a four-dimensional lattice calculation of the full-QCD (quantum chromodynamics, the non-abliean gauge theory of the strong interactions of quarks and gluons) path integrals needed to determine the masses of the charmed and bottom baryons. In the charm sector, our results are in good agreement with experiment within our systematics, except for the spin-1/2 $\Xi_{cc}$, for which we found the isospin-averaged mass to be $\Xi_{cc}$ to be $3665\pm17\pm14^{+0}_{-78}$ MeV. We predict the mass of the (isospin-averaged) spin-1/2 $\Omega_{cc}$ to be $3763\pm19\pm26^{+13}_{-79}$ {MeV}. In the bottom sector, our results are also in agreement with experimental observations and other lattice calculations within our statistical and systematic errors. In particular, we find the mass of the $\Omega_b$ to be consistent with the recent CDF measurement. We also predict the mass for the as yet unobserved $\Xi^\prime_b$ to be 5955(27) MeV., Comment: Invited talk at Conference of Computational Physics 2009. 3 pages

We study the nucleon, Sigma and cascade octet baryon electromagnetic form factors and the effects of SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking from 2+1-flavor lattice calculations. We find that electric and magnetic radii are similar; the maximum discrepancy is about 10%. In the pion-mass region we explore, both the quark-component and full-baryon moments have small SU(3) symmetry breaking. We extrapolate the charge radii and the magnetic moments using three-flavor heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBXPT). The systematic errors due to chiral and continuum extrapolations remain significant, giving rise to charge radii for $p$ and $\Sigma^-$ that are 3--4 standard deviations away from the known experimental ones. Within these systematics the predicted $\Sigma^+$ and $\Xi^-$ radii are 0.67(5) and 0.306(15) fm$^2$ respectively. When the next-to-next-to-leading order of HBXPT is included, the extrapolated magnetic moments are less than 3 standard deviations away from PDG values, and the discrepancy is possibly due to remaining chiral and continuum extrapolation errors., Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures

We calculate the magnetic dipole moment of the {delta}(1232) and {omega}{sup -} baryons with 2+1 flavors of clover fermions on anisotropic lattices using a background magnetic field. This is the first dynamical calculation of these magnetic moments using a background field technique. The calculation for {omega}{sup -} is done at the physical strange quark mass, with the result in units of the physical nuclear magneton {mu}{sub {omega}{sup -}}=-1.93{+-}0.08{+-}0.12 (where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic) compared to the experimental number: -2.02{+-}0.05. The {delta} has been studied at three unphysical quark masses, corresponding to pion mass m{sub {pi}}=366, 438, and 548 MeV. The pion mass dependence is compared with the behavior obtained from chiral effective field theory.

Mixed action lattice calculations allow for an additive lattice spacing dependent mass renormalization of mesons composed of one sea and one valence quark, regardless of the type of fermion discretization methods used in the valence and sea sectors. The value of the mass renormalization depends upon the lattice actions used. This mixed meson mass shift is an important lattice artifact to determine for mixed action calculations; because it modifies the pion mass, it plays a central role in the low energy dynamics of all hadronic correlation functions. We determine the leading order, $\mathcal{O}(a^2)$, and next to leading order, $\mathcal{O}(a^2 m_\pi^2)$, additive mass shift of \textit{valence-sea} mesons for a mixed lattice action with domain-wall valence fermions and rooted staggered sea fermions, relevant to the majority of current large scale mixed action lattice efforts. We find that on the asqtad improved coarse MILC lattices, this additive mass shift is well parameterized in lattice units by $\Delta(am)^2 = 0.034(2) -0.06(2) (a m_\pi)^2$, which in physical units, using $a=0.125$ fm, corresponds to $\Delta(m)^2 = (291\pm 8 \textrm{MeV})^2 -0.06(2) m_\pi^2$. In terms of the mixed action effective field theory parameters, the corresponding mass shift is given by $a^2 \Delta_\mathrm{Mix} = (316 \pm 4 \textrm{MeV})^2$ at leading order plus next-to-leading order corrections including the necessary chiral logarithms for this mixed action calculation, determined in this work. Within the precision of our calculation, one can not distinguish between the full next-to-leading order effective field theory analysis of this additive mixed meson mass shift and the parameterization given above., Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables

We calculate the magnetic dipole moment of the Delta baryon using a background magnetic field on 2+1-flavors of clover fermions on anisotropic lattices. We focus on the finite volume effects that can be significant in background field studies, and thus we use two different spatial volumes in addition to several quark masses., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, contributed talk at Lattice 2008, to appear in the proceedings

We compute the ratio of pseudoscalar decay constants ${f}_{K}/{f}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}$ using domain-wall valence quarks and rooted improved Kogut-Susskind sea quarks, at a lattice spacing of $b\ensuremath{\sim}0.125\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fm}$. By employing continuum chiral perturbation theory, we extract the Gasser-Leutwyler low-energy constant ${L}_{5}$ and extrapolate ${f}_{K}/{f}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}$ to the physical point. We find ${f}_{K}/{f}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}=1.218\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}{0.002}_{\ensuremath{-}0.024}^{+0.011}$ where the first error is statistical and the second error is an estimate of the systematic due to chiral extrapolation and fitting procedures. This value agrees within the uncertainties with the determination by the MILC collaboration, calculated using Kogut-Susskind valence quarks, suggesting that systematic errors arising from the choice of lattice valence quark are small.

The importance of lattice QCD to our understanding of the structure, spectroscopy, and interaction of hadrons is decribed. Recent accomplishments in each of these areas is outlined, and the opportunities emerging with increasing computational power are identified. Milestones at the 10 Tflops-years, 100 Tflops-years and Petaflops-years scales are presented.

I review recent developments in lattice calculations of nucleon structure. In particular, I cover the calculations of nucleon matrix elements related to generalized parton distribution functions, structure functions and form factors.

We determine the strong-isospin violating component of the neutron-proton mass difference from fully-dynamical lattice QCD and partially-quenched QCD calculations of the nucleon mass, constrained by partially-quenched chiral perturbation theory at one-loop level. The lattice calculations were performed with domain-wall valence quarks on MILC lattices with rooted staggered sea-quarks at a lattice spacing of b=0.125 fm, lattice spatial size of L=2.5 fm and pion masses ranging from m_pi ~ 290 MeV to ~ 350 MeV. At the physical value of the pion mass, we predict M_n - M_p |(d-u) = 2.26 +- 0.57 +- 0.42 +- 0.10 MeV where the first error is statistical, the second error is due to the uncertainty in the ratio of light-quark masses, eta=m_u/m_d, determined by MILC, and the third error is an estimate of the systematic due to chiral extrapolation., 14 pages, 11 figures

It has been argued recently that diquarks, a pair of quarks in the anti-triplet representation of SU(3) color, are important building blocks of baryons. The assumption that the scalar diquark is tightly bound seems to be nicely accommodated by experimental data. In this paper I attempt to extract phenomenological properties of diquarks from lattice QCD calculations. In particular, I use the MILC 2+1 dynamical fermion lattices with domain wall fermion valence quarks to probe diquarks very close to the chiral limit., 6 pages, 7 Postscript figures

The solution of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) on a lattice provides a first-principles method for understanding QCD in the low-energy regime, and is thus an essential tool for nuclear physics. The generation of gauge configurations, the starting point for lattice calculations, requires the most powerful leadership-class computers available. However, to fully exploit such leadership-class computing requires increasingly sophisticated methods for obtaining physics observables from the underlying gauge ensembles. In this paper, we describe a variety of recent methods that have been used to advance our understanding of the spectrum and structure of hadrons through lattice QCD.

Quantum Chromodynamcs (QCD) is now established as the theory of strong interactions. A plethora of hadronic physics phenomena can be explained and described by QCD. From the early days of QCD, it was clear that low energy phenomena require a non-perturbative approach. Lattice QCD is a non-perturbative formulation of QCD that is particularly suited for numerical calculations. Today, supercomputers have achieved performance capable of performing calculations that allow us to understand complex phenomena that arise from QCD. In this talk I will review the most recent results, relevant to nuclear physics. In particular, I will focus on results relevant to the structure and interactions of hadrons. Finally, I will comment on the opportunities opening up as we approach the era of exaflop computing.

Results of a high-statistics, multi-volume Lattice QCD exploration of the deuteron, the di-neutron, the H-dibaryon, and the Xi-Xi- system at a pion mass of m ~ 390 MeV are presented. Calculations were performed with an anisotropic n_f = 2+1 Clover discretization in four lattice volumes of spatial extent L ~ 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 fm, with a lattice spacing of b_s ~ 0.123 fm in the spatial-direction, and b_t ~ b_s/3.5 in the time-direction. The Xi-Xi- is found to be bound by B_{Xi-Xi-} = 14.0(1.4)(6.7) MeV, consistent with expectations based upon phenomenological models and low-energy effective field theories constrained by nucleon-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon scattering data at the physical light-quark masses. We find weak evidence that both the deuteron and the di-neutron are bound at this pion mass, with binding energies of B_d = 11(05)(12) MeV and B_{nn} = 7.1(5.2)(7.3) MeV, respectively. With an increased number of measurements and a refined analysis, the binding energy of the H-dibaryon is B_H = 13.2(1.8)(4.0) MeV at this pion mass, updating our previous result., 25 pages, 30 figures