Lattice QCD simulations of multi-baryon correlation functions can determine structure and reactions of nuclei without encountering the baryon chemical potential sign problem. However, they suffer from a signal-to-noise problem where Monte Carlo estimates of observables have quantum fluctuations that are exponentially larger than their average values. Recent lattice QCD results demonstrate that the complex phase of baryon correlations functions relates the baryon signal-to-noise problem to a sign problem and exhibits unexpected statistical behavior resembling a heavy-tailed random walk on the unit circle with universal characteristics. I will discuss newly proposed statistical estimators for baryon correlation functions that exploit this observation and do not suffer from a signal-to-noise problem, and will present their application to simple baryon and meson systems.

Hadron Spectroscopy and Interactions