The extraction of hadron form factors in lattice QCD using the standard two- and three-point correlator functions has its limitations. One of the most commonly studied sources of systematic error is excited state contamination, which occurs when correlators are contaminated with results from higher energy excitations. We apply the variational method to calculate the axial vector current gA and compare the results to the more commonly used summation and two-exponential fit methods. The results demonstrate that the variational approach offers a more efficient and robust method for the determination of nucleon matrix elements.
@article{arxiv.1511.05591,
title = {Improved determination of hadron matrix elements using the variational method},
author = {Jack Dragos and Roger Horsley and Waseem Kamleh and Derek B. Leinweber and Yoshifumi Nakamura and Paul E. L. Rakow and Gerrit Schierholz and Ross D. Young and James M. Zanotti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1511.05591},
year = {2015}
}