From 1D to 3D Hadron Structure with exascale lattice QCD simulations

Atomic nuclei form the core of everything in terms of visible matter and are made out of nucleons viz. protons and neutrons. Nucleons are made out of quarks and gluons, which cannot be isolated due to confinement. When we try to answer fundamental questions such as “what is the origin of mass and spin of the nucleon?”, we know that the answer lies within Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory describing the strong interaction piece of the Standard Model (SM). The nonperturbative nature of QCD, however, renders the answer extremely hard to obtain. Yet, despite the formidableness of the task, great progress has been made in first principles calculations of maps that describe the structure of nucleons. Starting from the simpler 1D case, we were able to study, using lattice QCD simulations, Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of quarks and gluons, hence paving the way towards the extraction of 3D maps, coined as Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs). HADaSTRaLS' goal is the first ab-initio high precision extraction of quark and gluon PDFs and GPDs of the nucleon with fully accounted systematics. What places me in a unique and privileged position and time for achieving this ambitious goal is that I will be able to (I) rely on an arsenal of theoretical and numerical tools that have been sharpened within my team over the past decade, and (II) take advantage of the unparalleled progress of algorithms and the advent of exascale supercomputers. HADaSTRaLS will open new avenues in hadron physics, with applications that range vastly beyond the theoretical understanding of nucleon structure. Our results will serve as a quantitative theory guide for the upcoming experiments at the US Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC). They will provide constraints for models describing physics beyond the SM and lead to applications in astroparticle physics refining the signal and background of ultra–high energy neutrino telescopes.