In nuclear chiral perturbation theory (ChPT), an operator is defined in a space with a cutoff which may be varied within a certain range. The operator runs as a result of the variation of the cutoff [renormalization group (RG) running]. In order for ChPT to be useful, the operator should run in a way consistent with the counting rule; that is, the running of chiral counter terms have to be of natural size. We vary the cutoff using the Wilsonian renormalization group (WRG) equation, and examine this consistency. As an example, we study the s-wave pion production operator for NN\to d pi, derived in ChPT. We demonstrate that the WRG running does not generate any chiral-symmetry-violating (CSV) interaction, provided that we start with an operator which does not contain a CSV term. We analytically show how the counter terms are generated in the WRG running in case of the infinitesimal cutoff reduction. Based on the analytic result, we argue a range of the cutoff variation for which the running of the counter terms is of natural size. Then, we numerically confirm this.
We discuss the possible power counting schemes that can be applied in the effective field theory description of heavy meson molecules, such as the X(3872) or the recently discovered Zb(10610) and Zb(10650) states. We argue that the effect of coupled channels is suppressed by at least two orders in the effective field theory expansion, meaning that they can be safely ignored at lowest order. The role of the one pion exchange potential between the heavy mesons, and in particular the tensor force, is also analyzed. By using techniques developed in atomic physics for handling power-law singular po…
Techniques developed for handing inverse-power-law potentials in atomic physics are applied to the tensor one-pion exchange potential to determine the regions in which it can be treated perturbatively. In S-, P- and D-waves the critical values of the relative momentum are less than or of the order of 400 MeV. The RG is then used to determine the power counting for short-range interaction in the presence of this potential. In the P-and D-waves, where there are no low-energy bound or virtual states, these interactions have half-integer RG eigenvalues and are substantially promoted relative to na…
We show how to renormalize chiral two pion exchange perturbatively if one pion exchange has already been fully iterated at leading order. This particular choice corresponds to the implementation of the counting proposal of Nogga, Timmermans and van Kolck at subleading orders. We illustrate why the perturbative treatment of the two pion exchange contributions is mandatory in order to avoid certain inconsistencies in Weinberg's counting. In addition, renormalizability implies modifications of the power counting which we explore for the particular case of the singlet channel.
Much effort has been invested on effective-field-theoretical studies of the near-threshold NN \to NNπreactions and, in order to deal with the rather large three-momentum transfers involved, the momentum counting scheme was proposed as an alternative to the usual Weinberg counting scheme. To examine the practical utility of the momentum counting scheme, we study here the contributions of higher-order terms to the pp\to ppπ^0 reaction. We discuss the consequences of the different treatments of the nucleon propagators in these two counting schemes. We also investigate certain higher chiral-order …
For interactions involving two or more nucleons it is useful to divide pions into three classes: potential, radiation, and soft. The momentum threshold for the production of radiation pions is $Q_r = \sqrt{M_N m_π}$. We show that radiation pions can be included systematically with a power counting in $Q_r$. The leading order radiation pion graphs which contribute to NN scattering are evaluated in the PDS and OS renormalization schemes and are found to give a small contribution. The power counting for soft pion contributions is also discussed.
The renormalization of the chiral nuclear interactions is studied. In leading order, the cutoff dependence is related to the singular tensor interaction of the one-pion exchange potential. In S waves and in higher partial waves where the tensor force is repulsive this cutoff dependence can be absorbed by counterterms expected at that order. In the other partial waves additional contact interactions are necessary. The implications of this finding for the effective-field-theory program in nuclear physics are discussed.
We review on a chiral power counting for in-medium chiral perturbation theory with nucleons and pions as explicit degrees of freedom coupled to external sources. It allows for a systematic expansion including both local and pion-mediated inter-nucleon interactions. One can identify from this power counting classes of non-perturbative diagrams that require resummation. A non-perturbative method based on Unitary Chiral Perturbation Theory was also developed for performing those resummations. This power counting and non-perturbative techniques were firstly applied to calculate the pion self-energ…
Nogga, Timmermans and van Kolck recently argued that Weinberg's power counting in the few-nucleon sector is inconsistent and requires modifications. Their argument is based on the observed cutoff dependence of the nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude calculated by solving the Lippmann-Schwinger equation with the regularized one-pion exchange potential and the cutoff Lambda varied in the range Lambda = 2...20 fm^(-1). In this paper we discuss the role the cutoff plays in the application of chiral effective field theory to the two-nucleon system and study carefully the cutoff-dependence of phase…
Our previous study of the near-threshold pp\to ppπ^0 reaction based on a hybrid nuclear effective field theory is further elaborated by examining the momentum dependence of the relevant transition operators. We show that the two-pion exchange diagrams give much larger contributions than the one-pion exchange diagram, even though the former is of higher order in the Weinberg counting scheme. The relation between our results and an alternative counting scheme, the momentum counting scheme, is also discussed.
A simple but useful guide for understanding the structure of light nuclei is presented. It is based on counting the number of interacting pairs in different spin-isospin (S,T) states for a given spatial symmetry, and estimating the overall binding according to the sum of sigma_i.sigma_j tau_i.tau_j expectation values, as suggested by one-pion-exchange. Applied to s- and p-shell nuclei, this simple picture accounts for the relative stability of nuclei as A increases and as T changes across isobars, the saturation of nuclear binding in the p-shell, and the tendency to form d, t, or alpha subclus…
The vector form factor of the pion is calculated in the framework of chiral effective field theory with vector mesons included as dynamical degrees of freedom. To construct an effective field theory with a consistent power counting, the complex-mass scheme is applied.
We study the pp \to ppπ^0 reaction near threshold based on heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. We show that the two-pion-exchange diagrams give much larger contribution than the one-pion-exchange diagram which is of lower chiral order in Weinberg's counting scheme. We also discuss the relation of our results to the momentum counting scheme.
We propose a new power counting for the effective field theory describing a near-threshold state with unstable constituents, such as the X(3872) meson. In this counting, the momenta of the heavy particles, the pion mass and the excitation energy of the unstable constituent -- the D* in the case of the X -- are treated as small scales, of order Q. The difference, delta, between the excitation energy of the D* and the pion mass is smaller than either by a factor ~20. We therefore assign delta an order Q^2 in our counting. This provides a consistent framework for a double expansion in both delta/…
Recent progress in using effective field theory to describe systems with two nucleons is discussed with particular emphasis placed on the inclusion of pions. Inconsistencies arising in Weinberg's power counting are demonstrated with two concrete examples. A consistent power-counting scheme is discussed in which pion exchange is sub-leading to local four-nucleon operators. NN scattering in the 1S0 and 3S1-3D1 channels is calculated at sub-leading order and compared with data.
We extend our previous analysis of the unitarized pion-nucleon scattering amplitude including up to fourth order terms in Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory. We pay special attention to the stability of the generated Delta(1232 resonance, the convergence problems and the power counting of the chiral parameters.
In this talk the $Q$ counting scheme to implement effective field theory is discussed. It is pointed out that there are two small mass scales in the problem $m_π$ and $1/a$ with $1/a \ll m_π$. It is argued that while the expansion based on $1/a$ being small compared to the underlying short distance scales works well, the chiral expansion may not. The coefficients of the effective range expansion are sensitive to the chiral physics and are very poorly described in $Q$ counting at lowest nontrivial order. A ``shape function'' is introduced which again is sensitive to pionic physics and insensiti…
We have studied the energy dependence of the $pp$ elastic scattering data and the pion-photoproduction data at 90$^\circ$ c.m. angle in light of the new generalized counting rule derived for exclusive processes. We show that by including the helicity flipping amplitudes (with energy dependence given by the generalized counting rule) and their interference with the Landshoff amplitude, we are able to reproduce the energy dependence of all cross-section and spin-correlation (A$_{NN}$) data available above the resonance region. The pion-photoproduction data can also be described by this approach,…
Nucleon-nucleon scattering in spin-triplet channels is analysed within an effective field theory where one-pion exchange is treated nonperturbatively. Justifying this requires the identification of an additional low-energy scale in the strength of that potential. Short-range interactions are organised according to the resulting power counting, in which the leading term is promoted to significantly lower order than in the usual perturbative counting. In each channel there is a critical momentum above which the waves probe the singular core of the tensor potential and the new counting is necessa…
We derive a novel chiral power counting scheme for in-medium chiral perturbation theory with explicit nucleonic and pionic degrees of freedom coupled to external sources. It allows for a systematic expansion taking into account local as well as pion-mediated inter-nucleon interactions. Based on this power counting, one can identify classes of non-perturbative diagrams that require a resummation. Within this scheme, the pion self-energy in asymmetric nuclear matter is analyzed and calculated up-to-and-including next-to-leading order (NLO). It is shown that the corrections involving in-medium nu…
We use power-counting arguments as an organizing principle to apply chiral perturbation theory, including an explicit $Δ$, to the $p p \rightarrow p p π^0$ reaction near threshold. There are two lowest-order leading mechanisms expected to contribute to the amplitude with similar magnitudes: an impulse term, and a $Δ$-excitation mechanism. We examine formally sub-leading but potentially large mechanisms, including pion-rescattering and short-ranged contributions. We show that the pion-rescattering contribution is enhanced by off-shell effects and has a sign opposite to that of a recent estimate…
Neutrino-induced pion and photon production from nucleons and nuclei are important for the interpretation of neutrino-oscillation experiments, and these processes are potential backgrounds in the MiniBooNE experiment [A. A. Aquilar-Arevalo \textit{et al.} (MiniBooNE Collaboration), Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.\ {\bf 100}, 032301 (2008)]. Pion and photon production are investigated at intermediate energies, where the $Δ$ resonance becomes important. The Lorentz-covariant effective field theory contains nucleons, pions, Deltas, isoscalar scalar ($σ$) and vector ($ω$) fields, and isovector vector ($ρ$) fie…
An explicit expression of the generating functional of two-flavor low-energy QCD with external sources in the presence of non-vanishing nucleon densities has been derived recently [1]. Within this approach we derive power counting rules for the calculation of in-medium pion properties. We develop the so-called standard rules for residual nucleon energies of the order of the pion mass and a modified scheme (non-standard counting) for vanishing residual nucleon energies. We also establish the different scales for the range of applicability of this perturbative expansion, which are \sqrt{6}πf_π\s…
We study the properties of the nucleon in highly asymmetric volumes where the spatial dimensions are small but the time dimension is large in comparison to the inverse pion mass. To facilitate power-counting at the level of Feynman diagrams, we introduce $ε^\prime$-power-counting which is a special case of Leutwyler's $δ$-power-counting. Pion zero-modes enter the $ε^\prime$-counting perturbatively, in contrast to both the $ε$- and $δ$-power-countings, since $m_q < q\bar{q}> V$ remains large. However, these modes are enhanced over those with non-zero momenta and enter at lower orders in the $ε^…
We analyze the power counting of the peripheral singlet partial waves in nucleon-nucleon scattering. In agreement with conventional wisdom, we find that pion exchanges are perturbative in the peripheral singlets. We quantify from the effective field theory perspective the well-known suppression induced by the centrifugal barrier in the pion-exchange interactions. By exploring perturbation theory up to fourth order, we find that the one-pion-exchange potential in these channels is demoted from leading to subleading order by a given power of the expansion parameter that grows with the orbital an…
We analyze elastic-pion nucleon scattering to third order in the so-called small scale expansion. It is based on an effective Lagrangian including pions, nucleons and deltas as active degrees of freedom and counting external momenta, the pion mass and the nucleon-delta mass splitting as small parameters. The fermion fields are considered as very heavy. We present results for phase shifts, threshold parameters and the sigma term. We discuss the convergence of the approach. A detailed comparison with results obtained in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory to third and fourth order is also gi…
We investigate the role of the delta isobar in the reaction $πd\to πd$ at threshold in chiral effective field theory. We discuss the corresponding power counting and argue that this calculation completes the evaluation of diagrams up to the order (m_pi/M_N)^(3/2), with m_pi (M_N) for the pion (nucleon) mass. The net effect of all delta contributions at this order to the pion-deuteron scattering length is (2.4 +/- 0.4)x 10^(-3) m_pi^{-1}.
Charge-symmetry breaking in the nucleon-nucleon force is investigated within an effective field theory, using a classification of isospin-violating interactions based on power-counting arguments. The relevant charge-symmetry-breaking interactions corresponding to the first two orders in the power counting are discussed, including their effects on the 3He-3H binding-energy difference. The static charge-symmetry-breaking potential linear in the nucleon-mass difference is constructed using chiral perturbation theory. Explicit formulae in momentum and configuration spaces are presented. The presen…
A calculation of the pion-production operator up to next-to-next-to-leading order for s-wave pions is performed within chiral effective field theory. In the previous study [Phys. Rev. C 85, 054001 (2012)] we discussed the contribution of the pion-nucleon loops at the same order. Here we extend that study to include explicit Delta degrees of freedom and the 1/m_N^2 corrections to the pion-production amplitude. Using the power counting scheme where the Delta-nucleon mass difference is of the order of the characteristic momentum scale in the production process, we calculate all tree-level and loo…
An analytic expression for the ${}^1S_0$ phase shifts in nucleon-nucleon scattering is derived in the context of the Schrödinger equation in configuration space with a short distance cutoff and with a consistent power counting scheme including pionic effects. The scheme treats the pion mass and the inverse scattering length over the intrinsic short distance scale as small parameters. Working at next-to-leading order in this scheme, we show that the expression obtained is identical to one obtained using the recently introduced PDS approach which is based on dimensional regularization with a nov…
Based on a counting scheme that explicitly takes into account the large momentum sqrt(M m_pi) characteristic for pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions we calculate all diagrams for the reaction NN --> NN pi at threshold up to next-to-leading order. At this order there are no free parameters and the size of the next-to-leading order contributions is in line with the expectation from power counting. The sum of loop corrections at that order vanishes for the process pp --> pp pi^0 at threshold. The total contribution at next-to-leading order from loop diagrams that include the delta degre…
We calculate electromagnetic neutral pion production off tri-nucleon bound states (3H, 3He) at threshold in chiral nuclear effective field theory to fourth order in the standard heavy baryon counting. We show that the fourth order two-nucleon corrections to the S-wave multipoles at threshold are very small. This implies that a precise measurement of the S-wave cross section for neutral pion production off 3He allows for a stringent test of the chiral perturbation theory prediction for the S-wave electric multipole E_{0+}^{pi0 n}.
The renormalization of the chiral np interaction in the 1S0 channel to N3LO in Weinberg counting for the long distance potential with one single momentum and energy independent counterterm is carried out. This renormalization scheme yields finite and unique results and is free of short distance off-shell ambiguities. We observe good convergence in the entire elastic range below pion production threshold and find that there are some small physical effects missing in the purely pionic chiral NN potential with or without inclusion of explicit Delta degrees of freedom. We also study the renormaliz…
Effective field theory techniques are used to describe the interaction of heavy hadrons in a model independent way. Predictability is obtained by exploiting the symmetries of QCD. Heavy hadron chiral perturbation theory is reviewed and used to describe $D^*$ decays. The phenomenologically important $D^*Dπ$ coupling is extracted from data working to first order in the chiral and heavy quark symmetry breaking parameters. A method is described for determining $|V_{ub}|$ from exclusive semileptonic $B$ and $D$ decays with 10% uncertainty. An effective field theory for two-nucleon systems is then d…
The structure of the weak axial pion exchange current is discussed in various models. It is shown how the interplay of the chiral invariance and the double counting problem restricts uniquely the form of the pion potential term, in the case when the nuclear dynamics is described by the Schroedinger equation with the static nucleon-nucleon potential.
We outline the modified formulation of baryon chiral effective field theory for nucleon-nucleon scattering and discuss the issue of a possible power counting violation by the nucleon mass. We also present the results for the quark mass dependence of the $^1S_0$ and $^3S_1$ scattering lengths and the deuteron binding energy at leading order.
We are interested in the consistency between the cutoff, chiral symmetry, and the power counting. For this purpose, we apply the Wilsonian renormalization group (RG) to an operator and then decrease the Wilsonian cutoff. As an example, we study the s-wave pion production operator for NN\to dπ, derived in chiral perturbation theory. We find that the renormalized part of the RG effective operator is accurately absorbed by chiral counter terms of higher order with natural coefficients. Thus, the use of the (sharp) cutoff regularization does not require us to introduce chiral-symmetry-breaking cou…
I outline the power counting scheme recently introduced by M. Savage, M. Wise and myself for the effective field theory treatment of nucleon-nucleon scattering. It is particularly useful for describing systems with a large scattering length, and differs from Weinberg's power counting. A renormalization group analysis plays a big role in determining the order of a given operator. Pions are ignored in this discussion; how to incorporate them is discussed in M. Savage's talk, nucl-th/9804034.
The neutrino-nucleon --> lepton pion QE reaction on the A-target is used as a signal event or/and to reconstruct the neutrino energy, using two-body kinematics. Competition of another processes could lead to misidentification of the arriving neutrinos, being important the fake events coming from the CC1-pion background. A precise knowledge of cross sections is a prerequisite in order to make simulations in event generators to substract the fake ones from the QE countings, and in this contribution we analyze the different nuclear effects on the CC1-pion channel. Our calculations also can be ext…
We compute hadronic transitions between heavy quarkonium states with two, or one, pion/eta particles in the final state. We use the multipole expansion but not the twist expansion. The latter cannot be justified for the energy release of hadronic transitions between heavy quarkonium states with different principal quantum numbers. Instead, we use a counting based on the dimension of the interpolating field of the hybrid. This alternative counting allows us to still use chiral low-energy theorems to compute the pion production by local gluonic operators. We explore the phenomenological impact o…
Pionful nuclear effective field theory (NEFT) in the two-nucleon sector is examined from the Wilsonian renormalization group point of view. The pion exchange is cut off at the floating cutoff scale, $Λ$, with the short-distance part being represented as contact interactions in accordance with the general principle of renormalization. We derive the nonperturbative renormalization group equations in the leading order of the nonrelativistic approximation in the operator space including up to $\mathcal{O}(p^2)$ and find the nontrivial fixed points in the $^1S_0$ and $^3S_1$--$^3D_1$ channels which…
We study the perturbative renormalizability of chiral two pion exchange in nucleon-nucleon scattering for p- and d-waves within the effective field theory approach. The one pion exchange potential is fully iterated at the leading order in the expansion, a choice generating a consistent and well-defined power counting that we explore in detail. The results show that perturbative chiral two pion exchange reproduces the data up to a center-of-mass momentum of k_cm ~300 MeV at NNLO and that the effective field theory expansion convergences up to k_cm ~ 350 MeV.
We extend the standard second order effective chiral Lagrangian of pions and nucleons by considering the coupling to an external gravitational field. As an application we calculate one-loop corrections to the one-nucleon matrix element of the energy-momentum tensor to fourth order in chiral counting, and next-to-leading order tree-level amplitude of the pion-production in an external gravitational field. We discuss the relation of the obtained results to experimentally measurable observables. Our expressions for the chiral corrections to the nucleon gravitational form factors differ from those…
Production of p-wave pions in nucleon-nucleon collisions is studied according to an improved power counting that embodies the constraints of chiral symmetry. Contributions from the first two non-vanishing orders are calculated. We find reasonable convergence and agreement with data for a spin-triplet cross section in $pp\to ppπ^0$,with no free parameters. Agreement with existing data for a spin-singlet cross section in $pp\to pnπ^+$ constrains a short-range operator shown recently to contribute significantly to the three-nucleon potential.
We analyze the renormalization of the nucleon--nucleon interaction at low energies in coordinate space for both one and two pion exchange chiral potentials. The singularity structure of the long range potential and the requirement of orthogonality respectively determines, once renormalizability is imposed, the minimum and maximum number of counterterms allowed in the effective description of the nucleon--nucleon interaction in a non-perturbative context.
Low energy theorems have been derived for the coefficients of the effective range expansion in s-wave nucleon-nucleon scattering valid to leading nontrivial order in an expansion based $Q$ counting, a scheme in which both $m_π$ and $1/a$ (where $a$ is the scattering length) are treated as small mass scales. Previous tests of these theorems based on coefficients extracted from scattering data indicate a pattern of gross violations which suggested serious problems for the perturbative treatment of pions implicit in $Q$ counting. We discuss the possibility that uncertainties associated with extra…
Recently we have developed a novel chiral power counting scheme for an effective field theory of nuclear matter with nucleons and pions as degrees of freedom [1]. It allows for a systematic expansion taking into account both local as well as pion-mediated multi-nucleon interactions. We apply this power counting in the present study to the evaluation of the pion self-energy and the energy density in nuclear and neutron matter at next-to-leading order. To implement this power counting in actual calculations we develop here a non-perturbative method based on Unitary Chiral Perturbation Theory for…
We propose a low energy effective field theory of QCD at the scale of pion mass for the $N_B=2$ sector, $N_B$ being the baryon number, which contains two dibaryon fields in addition to the nucleons and pions. It has a well defined counting, is renormalizable and the nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitudes are manifestly unitary at leading order. We work out a lower energy effective theory for nucleons with energy much lower than the pion mass and three momentum comparable to it, which also has a well defined counting and is renormalizable. The dibaryon fields must also be kept as explicit degree…
Novel techniques are presented, which identify the power-counting regime (PCR) of chiral effective field theory, and allow the use of lattice quantum chromodynamics results that extend outside the PCR. By analyzing the renormalization of low-energy coefficients of the chiral expansion of the nucleon mass, the existence of an optimal regularization scale is realized. The techniques developed for the nucleon mass renormalization are then applied to a test case: performing a chiral extrapolation without prior phenomenological bias. The robustness of the procedure for obtaining an optimal regulari…
We match the results for the subthreshold parameters of pion-nucleon scattering obtained from a solution of Roy-Steiner equations to chiral perturbation theory up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order, to extract the pertinent low-energy constants including a comprehensive analysis of systematic uncertainties and correlations. We study the convergence of the chiral series by investigating the chiral expansion of threshold parameters up to the same order and discuss the role of the Δ(1232) resonance in this context. Results for the low-energy constants are also presented in the counting sche…
We present a theoretical study of the radiative pion photoproduction on the nucleon ($γN \to πN γ'$) in the $\De$-resonance region, with the aim to determine the magnetic dipole moment (MDM) of the $Δ^+(1232)$. The study is done within the framework of chiral effective-field theory where the expansion is performed (to next-to-leading order) in the $δ$ power-counting scheme which is an extension of chiral perturbation theory to the $Δ$-resonance energy region. We present the results for the absorptive part of the $Δ$ MDM, as well as perform a sensitivity study of the dependence of $γN \to πN γ'…
We study the possibility of measuring parity-violating pion-nucleon coupling h_{πNN}^{(1)} from π^+ electroproton production in the threshold region. We calculate the electron-helicity asymmetry in terms of h_{πNN}^{(1)} and the Z-boson exchange between the electron and proton in leading-order heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. From the result, we demonstrate that the coupling can be determined to an accuracy of about 2 10^{-7} in an experiment with incident electron energy 250 MeV, luminosity 10^{38} sec^{-1} cm^{-2}, and a running time of 10^7 sec.
Power-counting arguments are used to organize the interactions contributing to the N N -> d pi, p n pi reactions near threshold. We estimate the contributions from the three formally leading mechanisms: the Weinberg-Tomozawa (WT) term, the impulse term, and the $Δ$-excitation mechanism. Sub-leading but potentially large mechanisms, including $S$-wave pion-rescattering, the Galilean correction to the WT term, and short-ranged contributions are also examined. The WT term is shown to be numerically the largest, and the other contributions are found to approximately cancel. Similarly to the reacti…
We point out a redundancy in the operator structure of the pionless effective field theory which dramatically simplifies computations. This redundancy is best exploited by using dibaryon fields as fundamental degrees of freedom. In turn, this suggests a new power counting scheme which sums range corrections to all orders. We explore this method with a few simple observables: the deuteron charge form factor, n p -> d gamma, and Compton scattering from the deuteron. Higher dimension operators involving electroweak gauge fields are not renormalized by the s-wave strong interactions, and therefore…
Neutrino-induced productions (neutrinoproduction) of photons and pions from nucleons and nuclei are important for the interpretation of neutrino-oscillation experiments, as they are potential backgrounds in the MiniBooNE experiment [A. A. Aquilar-Arevalo et al. (MiniBooNE Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 100}, 032301 (2008)]. These processes are studied at intermediate energies, where the Δ(1232) resonance becomes important. The Lorentz-covariant effective field theory, which is the framework used in this series of study, contains nucleons, pions, Δs, isoscalar scalar (σ) and vector (ω) f…
Assuming that alpha particles are described by a scalar-isoscalar chiral invariant heavy field it is shown how chiral symmetry determines the alpha-alpha interaction at long distances unambiguously from dimensional power counting of an effective chiral Lagrangean. The leading strong contribution is given by a two pion exchange potential which turns out to be attractive and singular at the origin, hence demanding renormalization. When 8Be is treated as a resonance state a model independent correlation between the Q-factor and lifetime 1/Gamma for the decay into two alpha particles arises. For p…
Novel techniques are presented, which identify the chiral power-counting regime (PCR), and realize the existence of an intrinsic energy scale embedded in lattice QCD results that extend outside the PCR. The nucleon mass is considered as a benchmark for illustrating this new approach. Using finite-range regularization, an optimal regularization scale can be extracted from lattice simulation results by analyzing the renormalization of the low energy coefficients. The optimal scale allows a description of lattice simulation results that extend beyond the PCR by quantifying and thus handling any s…
