The HAL QCD potential in the I = 1 π π system with the ρ meson bound state

Abstract We investigate the HAL QCD potential in $I=1$$\pi \pi$ scattering using the hybrid method for all-to-all propagators, in which a propagator is approximated by low eigenmodes, and the remaining high-eigenmode part is stochastically estimated. To verify the applicability of the hybrid method to systems containing quark creation$/$annihilation contributions such as the $\rho$ meson, we calculate the $I=1$$\pi\pi$ potential with the $(2+1)$-flavor gauge configurations on a $16^3 \times 32$ lattice with lattice spacing $a \approx 0.12$ fm and $(m_{\pi},m_{\rho}) \approx (870, 1230)$ MeV, in which the $\rho$ meson appears as a deeply bound state. While we find that the naive stochastic evaluations for quark creation$/$annihilation contributions lead to extremely large statistical fluctuations, additional noise reduction methods enable us to obtain a sufficiently precise potential, which shows a strong attractive force. We also confirm that the binding energy and $k^3 \cot \delta$ obtained from our potential are roughly consistent with an existing $\rho$ meson bound state, within the large systematic error associated with our calculation, whose possible origin is also discussed.