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Parton physics from a heavy-quark operator product expansion: Lattice QCD calculation of the fourth moment of the pion distribution amplitude

William Detmold1,*, Anthony V. Grebe1,2,†, Issaku Kanamori3,‡, C.-J. David Lin4,5,§, Robert J. Perry1,∥, and Yong Zhao6,¶ (HOPE Collaboration)

  • *Contact author: wdetmold@mit.edu
  • †Contact author: agrebe@mit.edu
  • ‡Contact author: kanamori-i@riken.jp
  • §Contact author: dlin@nycu.edu.tw
  • ∥Contact author: perryrobertjames@gmail.com
  • Contact author: yong.zhao@anl.gov
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 014510 – Published 30 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xs4z-nblq

Abstract

The pion light-cone distribution amplitude (LCDA) is an essential nonperturbative input for a range of high-energy exclusive processes in quantum chromodynamics. Building on our previous work, the continuum limit of the fourth Mellin moment of the pion LCDA is determined in quenched QCD using quark masses which correspond to a pion mass of mπ=550  MeV. This calculation finds ⟨ξ2⟩=0.202(8)(9) and ⟨ξ4⟩=0.039(28)(11) where the first error indicates the combined statistical and systematic uncertainty from the analysis and the second indicates the uncertainty from working with Wilson coefficients computed to next-to-leading order. These results are presented in the MS¯ scheme at a renormalization scale of μ=2  GeV.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 014510– Published 30 January, 2026
  • Received 14 October 2025
  • Accepted 17 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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