To bind or not to bind, a tale of two nucleons

Speaker: André Walker-Loud (LBNL)

Venue&Time: Red Room / 11:30 AM

Abstract: Our ability to understand the emergence of nuclear physics from the Standard Model requires an understanding two nucleon interactions from the underlying quark and gluon degrees of freedom. Due to the non-perturbative nature of QCD at low-energies, the only method to provide such predictions, with quantifiable uncertainties is lattice QCD. Yet the application of lattice QCD to the two-nucleon problem is beset by a number of significant challenges, such that it has remained uncertain whether di-nucleon systems form bound states at pion masses heavier than nature. I will present recent work exploring this question with all varieties of methods in the literature, including the HAL QCD potential method, on a single set of gauge ensembles, enabling for a direct comparison of the methods.