Proton Isovector Helicity Distribution on the Lattice at Physical Pion Mass

Abstract

We present a state-of-the-art calculation of the isovector quark helicity Bjorken-$x$ distribution in the proton using lattice-QCD ensembles at the physical pion mass. We compute quasi-distributions at proton momenta $P_z\in \{2.2,2.6,3.0\}$~GeV on the lattice, and match them systematically to the physical parton distribution using large-momentum effective theory (LaMET). We reach an unprecedented precision through high statistics in simulations, large-momentum proton matrix elements, and control of excited-state contamination. The resulting distribution with combined statistical and systematic errors is in agreement with the latest phenomenological analysis of the spin-dependent experimental data; in particular, $\Delta \bar{u}(x)>\Delta \bar{d}(x)$.

6 pages, 4 figures