- Open Access
Proton isovector helicity PDF at NNLO and the twist-3 moment from lattice QCD at physical quark masses
Phys. Rev. D 114, 014505 – Published 7 July, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kb88-xmzh
Abstract
We present a lattice quantum chromodynamics calculation of the -dependent isovector quark helicity parton distribution function (PDF) of the proton in the large momentum effective theory (LaMET) framework. Through operator product expansion (OPE) we also extract the moment of the twist-3 PDF for the first time in the scheme, which is proportional to the average color Lorentz force experienced by the quark in the proton. This calculation is performed on a lattice of spacing at physical quark masses. The quasi-PDF matrix elements are measured in proton states boosted to momenta . We first extract the lowest few helicity PDF moments from the renormalization-group (RG) invariant ratios of the matrix elements with OPE. Combined with the matrix elements relevant for , we obtain at next-to-leading order in . Then, the helicity quasi-PDF matrix elements are renormalized in the hybrid scheme with linear renormalon resummation and Fourier transformed to the -space after an asymptotic extrapolation. The quasi-PDF is perturbatively matched to the PDF with RG and threshold resummations at next-to-leading power and next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracies. After resummations, we determine the PDF in the region . The end-point regions are then parametrized, combined with the LaMET prediction at moderate , and fitted to the short-distance matrix elements in coordinate space.
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