Renormalization of nonlocal gluon operators on the lattice

Abstract: We study the renormalization of a complete set of gauge-invariant gluon nonlocal operators in lattice perturbation theory. We determine the mixing pattern under renormalization of these operators using symmetry arguments, which extend beyond perturbation theory. Additionally, we derive the renormalization factors of the operators within the modified Minimal Subtraction $(\rm \overline{MS})$ scheme up to one-loop. To enable a non-perturbative renormalization procedure, we investigate a suitable version of the modified regularization-invariant (${\rm RI}'$) scheme, and we calculate the conversion factors from that scheme to $\rm\overline{MS}$. The computations are performed by employing both dimensional and lattice regularizations, using the Wilson gluon action. This work is relevant to nonperturbative studies of the gluon parton distribution functions (PDFs) on the lattice.