Unpolarized isovector quark distribution function from Lattice QCD: A systematic analysis of renormalization and matching

We present a detailed Lattice QCD study of the unpolarized isovector quark Parton Distribution Function (PDF) using large-momentum effective theory framework. We choose a quasi-PDF defined by a spatial correlator which is free from mixing with other operators of the same dimension. In the lattice simulation, we use a Gaussian-momentum-smeared source at $M_\pi=356$ MeV and $P_z \in \{1.8,2.3\}$ GeV. To control the systematics associated with the excited states, we explore {five different source-sink separations}. The nonperturbative renormalization is conducted in a regularization-independent momentum subtraction scheme, and the matching between the renormalized quasi-PDF and $\bar{\rm MS}$ PDF is calculated based on perturbative QCD up to one-loop order. Systematic errors due to renormalization and perturbative matching are also analyzed in detail. Our results for lightcone PDF are in reasonable agreement with the latest phenomenological analysis.