Parton distribution functions from lattice QCD

Abstract

Parton distribution functions (PDFs) provide one of the most direct ways to describe the partonic structure of hadrons in QCD. They encode nonperturbative information about quarks, antiquarks, and gluons as functions of the partonic momentum fraction $x$, and they connect this microscopic structure to experimentally measurable high-energy scattering processes through QCD factorization. This makes PDFs interesting to pursue with lattice QCD, which provides a first-principles formulation of the strong interaction. The challenge is that PDFs are defined through light-cone correlations, while lattice QCD is formulated in Euclidean spacetime. This chapter introduces the theoretical foundations and current status of lattice-QCD calculations of PDFs, with emphasis on modern approaches based on spatially nonlocal matrix elements. We first review the light-cone definitions of quark and gluon PDFs, their Mellin moments, and the connection to QCD factorization. We then explain how large-momentum effective theory, short-distance factorization, and the short-distance operator product expansion make it possible to relate Euclidean lattice observables to light-cone partonic structure. Particular attention is given to the elements that have improved over the last five years: renormalization of Wilson-line operators, perturbative matching, finite-momentum and finite-distance effects, reconstruction of the $x$ dependence, and systematic uncertainties. We summarize selected lattice results for proton quark PDFs, pion and kaon PDFs, gluon PDFs, and twist-3 distributions, highlighting both recent progress and remaining challenges. As will be demonstrated, lattice QCD is moving from proof-of-principle calculations toward systematically improvable determinations that can complement experimental data and global QCD analyses in mapping the partonic structure of hadrons.