Transverse momentum distributions inside the nucleon from lattice QCD

Nucleons, i.e., protons and neutrons, are composed of quarks and gluons, whose interactions are described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), part of the standard model of particle physics. This work applies lattice QCD to compute quark momentum distributions in the nucleon. The calculations make use of lattice data generated on supercomputers that has already been successfully employed in lattice studies of spatial quark distributions (''nucleon tomography''). In order to be able to analyze transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions, this thesis explores a novel approach based on non-local operators. One interesting observation is that the transverse momentum dependent density of polarized quarks in a polarized nucleon is visibly deformed. A more elaborate operator geometry is required to enable a quantitative comparison to high energy scattering experiments. First steps in this direction are encouraging. (orig.)