Recent Developments in Quark Nuclear Physics

Abstract

We provide an overview of recent work exploring the quark-mass dependence of hadronic observables and the associated role of chiral nonanalytic behavior due to the meson-cloud of hadrons. In particular, we address an issue of great current interest, namely the degree of model independence of results obtained through a controlled extrapolation of lattice QCD simulation results. Physical insights gained from this research are highlighted. We emphasize how chiral effective field theory formulated with a finite-range regulator provides a reliable and model-independent extrapolation to the physical world.

Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures. Invited plenary session talk at QNP 2002, International Conference on Quark-Nuclear Physics, 9-14 June 2002, Forschungszentrum Julich, Germany