Consistency between Lüscher's finite volume method and HAL QCD method for two-baryon systems in lattice QCD

Abstract

There exist two methods to study two-baryon systems in lattice QCD: the direct method which extracts eigenenergies from the plateaux of the temporal correlator and the HAL QCD method which extracts observables from the non-local potential associated with the tempo-spatial correlator. Although the two methods should give the same results theoretically, qualitatively different results have been reported. Recently, we pointed out that the separation of the ground state from the excited states is crucial to obtain sensible results in the former, while both states provide useful signals in the latter. In this paper, we identify the contribution of each state in the direct method by decomposing the two-baryon correlators into the finite-volume eigenmodes obtained from the HAL QCD method. We consider the $ΞΞ$ system in the $^1$S$_0$ channel at $m_π= 0.51$ GeV in 2+1 flavor lattice QCD using the wall and smeared quark sources. We demonstrate that the "pseudo-plateau" at early time slices (t = 1~2 fm) from the smeared source in the direct method indeed originates from the contamination of the excited states, and the true plateau with the ground state saturation is realized only at t > 5~15 fm corresponding to the inverse of the lowest excitation energy. We also demonstrate that the two-baryon operator can be optimized by utilizing the finite-volume eigenmodes, so that (i) the finite-volume energy spectra from the HAL QCD method agree with those from the optimized temporal correlator and (ii) the correct spectra would be accessed in the direct method only if highly optimized operators are employed. Thus we conclude that the long-standing issue on the consistency between the Lüscher's finite volume method and the HAL QCD method for two baryons is now resolved: They are consistent with each other quantitatively only if the excited contamination is properly removed in the former.