For this INCITE project, researchers from the U.S. Quantum Chromodynamics (USQCD) Collaboration will advance exploration in lattice QCD and other strongly coupled field theories. The research team will use DOE leadership computing resources to generate gauge configurations with up, down, strange, and, in some cases, charmed quarks on lattices that are sufficiently fine grained to enable full control of systematic errors for a number of key quantities. These gauge configurations will be used to address fundamental questions in high energy and nuclear physics, and are directly related to several major experimental programs in these fields (e.g., the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland and the Gluex experiment at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility).

In high energy physics, precise lattice QCD calculations are required to investigate and pin down the properties of the Standard Model of particle physics and to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. A central goal of the nuclear physics research program is to utilize QCD as a predictive tool for nuclear systems and their constituents. In particular, the next five years will be a critical period for the application of lattice QCD to cold nuclear physics, as the calculations will be performed routinely at the physical value of the pion mass, allowing for direct comparisons with experiment. Results from this project are essential for meeting milestones set by DOE’s Office of Science.