Lattice Hadron Physics draws upon the developments made in recent years in implementing chirality on the lattice via the overlap formalism. These developments exploit chiral effective field theory in order to extrapolate lattice results to physical quark masses, new forms of improving operators to remove lattice artefacts, analytical studies of finite-volume effects in hadronic observables, and state-of-the-art lattice calculations of excited resonances. This volume, comprised of selected lectures, is designed to assist those outside the field who want quickly to become literate in these topics. As such, it provides graduate students and experienced researchers in other areas of hadronic physics with the background through which they can appreciate, if not become active in, contemporary lattice-gauge theory and its applications to hadronic phenomena.

With ever increasing computational resources and improvements in algorithms, new opportunities are emerging for lattice gauge theory to address key questions in strongly interacting systems, such as nuclear matter. Calculations today use dynamical gauge-field ensembles with degenerate light up/down quarks and the strange quark and it is possible now to consider including charm-quark degrees of freedom in the QCD vacuum. Pion masses and other sources of systematic error, such as finite-volume and discretization effects, are beginning to be quantified systematically. Altogether, an era of precision calculation has begun and many new observables will be calculated at the new computational facilities. The aim of this set of lectures is to provide graduate students with a grounding in the application of lattice gauge theory methods to strongly interacting systems and in particular to nuclear physics. A wide variety of topics are covered, including continuum field theory, lattice discretizations, hadron spectroscopy and structure, many-body systems, together with more topical lectures in nuclear physics aimed a providing a broad phenomenological background. Exercises to encourage hands-on experience with parallel computing and data analysis are included.

Straddling the traditional disciplines of nuclear and particle physics, hadron physics is a vital and extremely active research area, as evidenced by a 2004 Nobel prize and new research facilities, such as that scheduled to open at CERN. Scientifically it is of vital importance in extrapolating our knowledge of quark-gluon physics at the sub-nucleon level to provide a wider perspective of strongly interacting hadrons, which make up the vast bulk of known matter in the Universe. Through detailed, pedagogical chapters contributed by key international experts, Hadron Physics maps out our contemporary knowledge of the subject. It covers both the theoretical and experimental aspects of hadron structure and properties along with a wide range of specific research topics, results, and applications. Providing a full picture of activity in the field, the book highlights three particular areas of current research: computational lattice hadron physics, the structure and dynamics of hadrons, and generalized parton distributions. It provides a solid introduction, includes background theory, and presents the current state of understanding of the subject.

Particle and nuclear physicists frequently take results from Lattice QCD at their face value without probing into their reliability or sophistication. This attitude usually stems from a lack of knowledge of the field. The aim of the present volume is to rectify this by introducing in an elementary way several topics, which we believe are appropriate for, and of possible interest to, both particle and nuclear physicists who are non-experts in the field.

This book begins with a brief historical review of the early applications of standard dispersion relations in particle physics. It then presents the modern perspective within the Standard Model, emphasizing the relation of analyticity together with alternative tools applied to strong interactions, such as perturbative and lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), as well as chiral perturbation theory. The core of the book argues that, in order to improve the prediction of specific hadronic observables, it is often necessary to resort to methods of complex analysis more sophisticated than the simple Cauchy integral. Accordingly, a separate mathematical chapter is devoted to solving several functional analysis optimization problems. Their applications to physical amplitudes and form factors are discussed in the following chapters, which also demonstrate how to merge the analytic approach with statistical analysis tools. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable guide for researchers working in precision hadronic physics, as well as graduate students who are new to the field.

This introduction to quantum chromodynamics presents the basic concepts and calculations in a clear and didactic style accessible to those new to the field. Readers will find useful methods for obtaining numerical results, including pure gauge theory and quenched spectroscopy.

Lattice Hadron Physics draws upon the developments made in recent years in implementing chirality on the lattice via the overlap formalism. These developments exploit chiral effective field theory in order to extrapolate lattice results to physical quark masses, new forms of improving operators to remove lattice artefacts, analytical studies of finite-volume effects in hadronic observables, and state-of-the-art lattice calculations of excited resonances. This volume, comprised of selected lectures, is designed to assist those outside the field who want quickly to become literate in these topics. As such, it provides graduate students and experienced researchers in other areas of hadronic physics with the background through which they can appreciate, if not become active in, contemporary lattice-gauge theory and its applications to hadronic phenomena.