The sigma commutator from lattice QCD

Abstract

As a direct source of information on chiral symmetry breaking within QCD, the sigma commutator is of considerable importance. Since hadron structure is a non-perturbative problem, numerical calculations on a space-time lattice are currently the only rigorous approach. With recent advances in the calculation of hadron masses within full QCD, it is of interest to see whether the sigma commutator can be calculated directly from the dependence of the nucleon mass on the input quark mass. We show that, provided the correct chiral behaviour of QCD is respected in the extrapolation to realistic quark masses, one can indeed obtain a fairly reliable determination of the sigma commutator using present lattice data. For two-flavour dynamical fermion QCD the sigma commutator lies between 45 and 55 MeV based on recent data from CP-PACS and UKQCD.