We analyze magnetic and axial two-nucleon contact terms in a combined large-$N_c$ and pionless effective field theory expansion. These terms play important roles in correctly describing, e.g., the low-energy cross section of radiative neutron capture and the deuteron magnetic moment. We show that the large-$N_c$ expansion hints towards a hierarchy between the two leading-order magnetic terms that matches that found in phenomenological fits. We also comment on the issue of naturalness in different Lagrangian bases.
We calculate the electric dipole moments (EDMs) of three-nucleon systems at leading order in pionless effective field theory. The one-body contributions that arise from permanent proton and neutron EDMs and the two-body contributions that arise from CP-odd nucleon-nucleon interactions are taken into account. Neglecting the Coulomb interaction, we consider the triton and ${}^3$He, and also investigate them in the Wigner-SU(4) symmetric limit. We also calculate the electric dipole form factor and find numerically that the momentum dependence of the electric dipole form factor in the Wigner limit…
We consider the two-nucleon weak interaction with a pionless effective field theory. Dibaryon fields are introduced to facilitate calculations and ensure precision in the initial and final state propagators. Weak interactions are accounted for with the parity-violating dibaryon-nucleon-nucleon vertices, which contain unknown weak dibaryon-nucleon-nucleon coupling constants. We apply the model to the calculation of a parity-violating observable in the neutron-proton capture at threshold. Result is obtained up to the linear order in the unknown dibaryon-nucleon-nucleon coupling constants. We com…
The symmetries of the Standard Model dictate that for very low energies, where nucleon dynamics can be described in terms of a pionless effective field theory, the leading-order parity-violating nucleon-nucleon Lagrangian contains five independent unknown low-energy constants (LECs). We find that imposing the approximate symmetry of QCD that appears when the number of colors N(c) becomes large reduces the number of independent LECs to two at leading order in the combined pionless effective field theory and large-N(c) expansions. We also find a relation between the two isoscalar LECs in the lar…
Recent proposals for the use of light nuclei as dark matter direct detection targets necessitate a strong theoretical understanding of the nuclear physics involved. We perform relevant calculations for dark matter-light nucleus scattering in a combined pionless effective field theory and large-$N_c$ expansion, where $N_c$ is the number of quark colors. We include a general set of one-nucleon currents that have been used in other effective theories, as well as novel two-nucleon contact currents. First, we obtain constraints for the relative sizes of the dark matter couplings to the one- and two…
We present results for two-body observables that are sensitive to the parity-violating component of nucleon-nucleon interactions. These interactions are studied using an effective field theory in which the only dynamic degrees of freedom are nucleon fields. The observables we study are cross-section asymmetries in nucleon-nucleon scattering and asymmetries and induced polarizations in the process np \to dγ.
We consider a pionless effective theory with dibaryon fields for the description of the weak process involving two nucleons. We construct leading order Lagrangians that contain nucleon-dibaryon weak coupling constants. We calculate the physical observable in the photodisintegration of the deuteron at threshold and obtain the result in terms of the nucleon-dibaryon weak coupling constants. Relation to existing calculations is discussed.
In this dissertation we apply the pionless effective field theory to low energy neutron deuteron elastic scattering process. We calculated some of the polarization observables in neutron deuteron scattering to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order, in particular the transverse asymmetry $A_y$. All of the previous calculations have the same characteristic feature of under-predicting this observable, this is known as the $A_y$-puzzle. At this order of the pionless EFT new two-body $P$-wave interaction terms enter into the Lagrangian. This interaction terms give crucial contributions to the $A_y$…
Pionless effective field theory in a finite volume (FVEFT$_{π\!/}$) is investigated as a framework for the analysis of multi-nucleon spectra and matrix elements calculated in lattice QCD (LQCD). By combining FVEFT$_{π\!/}$ with the stochastic variational method, the spectra of nuclei with atomic number $A\in\{2,3\}$ are matched to existing finite-volume LQCD calculations at heavier-than-physical quark masses corresponding to a pion mass $m_π=806$ MeV, thereby enabling infinite-volume binding energies to be determined using infinite-volume variational calculations. Based on the variational wave…
We analyze two-derivative two-nucleon interactions in a combined pionless effective field theory and large-$N_c$ expansion. At leading order in the large-$N_c$ expansion, relationships among low-energy constants emerge. We find these to be consistent with experiment. However, it is critical to correctly address the subtraction-point dependence of the low-energy constants. These results provide additional confidence that the dual-expansion procedure is useful for analyzing low-energy few-body observables.
This work implements pionless effective field theory with the two-nucleon system expanded around the unitarity limit at second order perturbation theory. The expansion is found to converge well. All Coulomb effects are treated in perturbation theory, including two-photon contributions at next-to-next-to-leading order. After fixing a three-nucleon force to the 3He binding energy at this order, proton-deuteron scattering in the doublet S-wave channel is calculated for moderate center-of-mass momenta.
Finite-volume pionless effective field theory provides an efficient framework for the extrapolation of nuclear spectra and matrix elements calculated at finite volume in lattice QCD to infinite volume, and to nuclei with larger atomic number. In this work, it is demonstrated how this framework may be implemented via a set of correlated Gaussian wavefunctions optimised using differentiable programming and via solution of a generalised eigenvalue problem. This approach is shown to be significantly more efficient than a stochastic implementation of the variational method based on the same form of…
The pion contributions to the coupling $C_0$ of pionless EFT are studied via both non-relativistic and relativistic forms of chiral effective field theory for nuclear forces. A definite item in the $2N$-reducible component of the box diagram is shown to be dominant over the $2N$-irreducible (potential) ones due to the pinching of low-lying nucleon poles, and this anomalous mapping between pionless and pionfull EFT's occurs right within the non-relativistic regime. A natural strategy for renormalization of the pionfull theory emerges as a byproduct through the interactive analysis of the box di…
Deuteron Compton scattering is calculated to $\mathcal{O}(Q^2)$ in pionless effective field theory using a dibaryon approach. The vector amplitude, which was not included in the previous pionless calculations, contributes to the cross section at $\mathcal{O}(Q^2)$ and influences significantly the extracted values of nucleon electric polarizability at incident photon energy 49 MeV. We recommend future high precision deuteron compton scattering experiments being performed at 25-35 MeV photon energy where the nucleon polarizability effects are appreciable and the pionless effective field theory i…
In this article I summarize recent progress in the effective field theory approach to low energy nuclear systems, with a focus on the power counting issue. In the pionless sector, where the power counting is quite well understood at the nucleon-nucleon (NN) level, I discuss some recent developments toward few- and many-body calculations. In the pionful sector, I focus on the actively debated issue of power counting in the NN sector and some recent developments toward a model-independent NN interaction. Finally, the scenario that the power counting might depend on the number of particles is dis…
In this thesis, which is in the field of few-body systems, I am studying low-energy electro-weak interactions in light nuclear systems whose number of nucleons, $A$, is smaller than 4 ({\it i.e.,} $d$, $^3$H, $^3$He), where the main purpose of this work is to calculate the proton-proton ($pp$) fusion rate.
We study breakup of the deuteron induced by neutrinos in the neutral $νd\to νnp$, $\barν d\to \barν np$ and the charged $\barν d\to e^+ n n$, $νd\to e^- pp$ processes. Pionless effective field theory with dibaryon fields is used to calculate the total cross sections for neutrino energies $E_ν$ from threshold to 20 MeV. Amplitudes are expanded up to next-to-leading order, and the partial wave is truncated at $P$-waves. The Coulomb interaction between two protons is included nonperturbatively in the reaction amplitudes, and an analytic expression of the amplitudes is obtained. The contribution o…
Nuclear parity violation is studied with polarized neutrons in the photodisintegration of the deuteron at low energies. A pionless effective field theory with di-baryon fields is used for the investigation. Hadronic weak interactions are treated by parity-violating di-baryon-nucleon-nucleon vertices, which have undetermined coupling contants. A parity-violating asymmetry in the process is calculated for the incident photon energy up to 30 MeV. If experimental data for the parity-violating asymmetry become available in the future, we will be able to determine the unknown coupling contants in th…
We use an effective field theory (EFT) which contains only short-range interactions to study the dependence of a variety of three-nucleon observables on the pion mass. The pion-mass dependence of input quantities in our ``pionless'' EFT is obtained from a recent chiral EFT calculation. To the order we work at, these quantities are the 1S0 scattering length and effective range, the deuteron binding energy, the 3S1 effective range, and the binding energy of one three-nucleon bound state. The chiral EFT input we use has the inverse 3S1 and 1S0 scattering lengths vanishing at mpi_c=197.8577 MeV. A…
In this paper, we establish a general framework for calculating pionless matrix elements between $A=3$ bound-states up to next-to-leading-order. This framework is useful for pionless calculations of electroweak observables, such as $^3$H,$^3$He magnetic moments and $^3$H $β$ decay. Starting from a Bethe-Salpeter equation, we prove that for a bound-state, the three-nucleon wave-function normalization can be expressed diagrammatically in a way that is equivalent to the unit operator between two identical three-nucleon bound-states. This diagrammatic form of the identity matrix element is the fou…
We present a study of the two-photon-exchange ($2γ$-exchange) corrections to the $S$-levels in muonic ($μ$D) and ordinary (D) deuterium within the pionless effective field theory (pionless EFT). Our calculation proceeds up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) in the pionless EFT expansion. The only unknown low-energy constant entering the calculation at this order corresponds to the coupling of a longitudinal photon to the nucleon-nucleon system. To minimise its correlation with the deuteron charge radius, it is extracted using the information about the hydrogen-deuterium isotope sh…
The proton-proton fusion reaction, $pp\to de^+ν$, is studied in pionless effective field theory (EFT) with di-baryon fields up to next-to leading order. With the aid of the di-baryon fields, the effective range corrections are naturally resummed up to the infinite order and thus the calculation is greatly simplified. Furthermore, the low-energy constant which appears in the axial-current-di-baryon-di-baryon contact vertex is fixed through the ratio of two- and one-body matrix elements which reproduces the tritium lifetime very precisely. As a result we can perform a parameter free calculation …
A method to calculate the form factor for an external current with non-derivative coupling for the three-body system in an effective field theory (EFT) of short-range interactions is shown. Using this method the point charge radius of ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ is calculated to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in pionless EFT ($\mathrm{EFT}(\not{\!π})$), and the magnetic moment and magnetic radius of ${}^3\mathrm{H}$ and ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ are calculated to next-to-leading order (NLO). For the ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ charge and magnetic form factors Coulomb interactions are ignored. The ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ …
The s-wave nucleon-nucleon (NN) scattering matrix ($S$-matrix) exhibits UV/IR symmetries which are hidden in the effective field theory (EFT) action and scattering amplitudes, and which explain some generic features of the phase shifts. These symmetries offer clarifying interpretations of existing pionless EFT expansions, and suggest starting points for novel expansions. The leading-order (LO) $S$-matrix obtained in the pionless EFT with scattering lengths treated exactly is shown to have a UV/IR symmetry which leaves the sum of s-wave phase shifts invariant. A new scheme, which treats effecti…
We show that processes involving pions that remain very near their mass-shell can be reliably computed in the pionless effective field theory, with the pion integrated in as a heavy field. As an application, we compute the pion-deuteron scattering amplitude near threshold to next-to-leading order in the momentum expansion. This amplitude is formally dominated by an infrared logarithm of the form log(gamma/mpi), where gamma is the deuteron binding momentum, and mpi is the mass of the pion. The coefficient of this logarithm is determined by the S-wave pion-nucleon scattering lengths.
We extend our Wilsonian renormalization group (RG) analysis on the pionless nuclear effective theory (NEFT) in the two-nucleon sector in two ways; on the one hand, (1) we enlarge the space of operators up to including those of $\mathcal{O}(p^4)$ in the $S$ waves, and, on the other hand, (2) we consider the RG flows in higher partial waves ($P$ and $D$ waves). In the larger space calculations, we find, in addition to nontrivial fixed points, two ``fixed lines'' and a ``fixed surface'' which are related to marginal operators. In the higher partial wave calculations, we find similar phase structu…
We calculate the forward unpolarised doubly-virtual Compton scattering (VVCS) off the deuteron in the framework of pionless effective field theory, up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) for the longitudinal and next-to-leading order (NLO) for the transverse amplitude. The charge elastic form factor of the deuteron, obtained from the residue of the longitudinal VVCS amplitude, is used to extract the value of the single unknown two-nucleon one-photon contact coupling that enters the longitudinal amplitude at N3LO. We also study the lowest spin-independent generalised polarisabilitie…
Thermal properties of low-density neutron matter are investigated by determinantal quantum Monte Carlo lattice calculations on 3+1 dimensional cubic lattices. Nuclear effective field theory (EFT) is applied using the pionless single- and two-parameter neutron-neutron interactions, determined from the $^1S_0$ scattering length and effective range. The determination of the interactions and the calculations of neutron matter are carried out consistently by applying EFT power counting rules. The thermodynamic limit is taken by the method of finite-size scaling, and the continuum limit is examined …
A systematic description of low-energy observables in light nuclei is presented. The effective field theory formalism without pions is extended to: i) predictions with next-to-leading-order (non-perturbatively) accuracy for the 4-helium binding energy B(α), the triton charge radius, and the 3-helium-neutron scattering length; ii) phase shifts for neutron-deuteron scattering and α-neutron low-energy scattering at leading order; iii) the ground states of the 5-helium (with and without Coulomb interaction) and 6-helium isotopes up to next-to-leading order; The convergence from leading- to next-to…
We address the $Λ$-hypernuclear `overbinding problem' in light hypernuclei which stands for a 1--3 MeV excessive $Λ$ separation energy calculated in $_Λ^5$He. This problem arises in most few-body calculations that reproduce ground-state $Λ$ separation energies in the lighter $Λ$ hypernuclei within various hyperon-nucleon interaction models. Recent pionless effective field theory nuclear few-body calculations are extended in this work to $Λ$ hypernuclei. At leading order, the $ΛN$ low-energy constants are associated with $ΛN$ scattering lengths and the $ΛNN$ low-energy constants are fitted to $…
Weak interactions in two-nucleon system at low energies are explored in the framework of effective field theory. We review our recent calculations of parity-violating observables in radiative neutron capture on a proton at threshold where both pionful and pionless theories are employed.
In chiral effective field theory the leading order (LO) nucleon-nucleon potential includes two contact terms, in the two spin channels $S=0,1$, and the one-pion-exchange potential. When the pion degrees of freedom are integrated out, as in the pionless effective field theory, the LO potential includes two contact terms only. In the three-nucleon system, the pionless theory includes a three-nucleon contact term interaction at LO whereas the chiral effective theory does not. Accordingly arbitrary differences could be observed in the LO description of three- and four-nucleon binding energies. We …
I discuss isospin violation in an effective field theory appraoch of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. The observed leading order charge independence breaking is explained in terms of one-pion exchange together with a four-nucleon contact term. A general classification scheme of corrections to this leading order results is presented and an explanation is offered why charge-dependent pion-nucleon coupling constants can not play a role in the observed isospin violation in the NN scattering lengths. Charge symmetry breaking, the size of $πγ$-exchange graphs and the pionless theory are also discuss…
$ηNNN$ and $ηNNNN$ bound states are explored in stochastic variational method (SVM) calculations within a pionless effective field theory (EFT) approach at leading order. The theoretical input consists of regulated $NN$ and $NNN$ contact terms, and a regulated energy dependent $ηN$ contact term derived from coupled-channel models of the $N^{\ast}(1535)$ nucleon resonance plus a regulated $ηNN$ contact term. A self consistency procedure is applied to deal with the energy dependence of the $ηN$ subthreshold input, resulting in a weak dependence of the calculated $η$-nuclear binding energies on t…
Two-neutrino double-beta decay of certain nuclear isotopes is one of the rarest Standard Model processes observed in nature. Its neutrinoless counterpart is an exotic lepton-number nonconserving process that is widely searched for to determine if the neutrinos are Majorana fermions. In order to connect the rate of these processes to the Standard Model and beyond the Standard Model interactions, it is essential that the corresponding nuclear matrix elements are constrained reliably from theory. Lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD) and low-energy effective field theories (EFTs) are expected to …
Current models of inter-nucleon interactions are built within the frame of Effective Field Theories (EFTs). Contrary to traditional nuclear potentials, EFT interactions require a renormalization of their parameters in order to derive meaningful estimations of observable. In this paper, a renormalization procedure is designed in connection with many-body approximations applicable to large-A systems and formulated within the frame of many-body perturbation theory. The procedure is shown to generate counterterms that are independent of the targeted A-body sector. As an example, the procedure is a…
The nucleon axial vector form factor is investigated in a light-cone quark spectator diquark model, in which Melosh rotations are applied to both the quark and vector diquark. It is found that this model gives a very good description of available experimental data and the results have very little dependence on the parameters of the model. The relation between the nucleon axial constant and the anomalous magnetic moment of nucleons is also discussed.
We study the $N_c$ scalings of pion-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon scatterings and find that a consistent large $N_c$ counting can be established if we assume Witten's counting rules are applied to matrix elements or scattering amplitudes which use the relativistic normalization for the nucleons. With the pionless effective field theory, we also find that the $S$-wave nucleon-nucleon interaction is so strong that it should be treated nonperturbatively at the leading order in the $1/N_c$ expansion. By summing all the leading order diagrams, we find that the deuteron binding energy is of order $1/N…
We calculate the muon capture rate on the deuteron to next-to-next-to-leading order in the pionless effective field theory. The result can be used to constrain the two-nucleon isovector axial coupling L_{1,A} to +/- 2 fm^3 if the muon capture rate is measured to 2% level. From this, one can determine the neutrino-deuteron break up reactions and the pp-fusion cross section in the sun to a same level of accuracy.
We provide a systematic assessment of the order-$α^5$ nuclear contributions to the Lamb shift of muonic deuterium, including the accompanying radiative corrections due to vacuum polarization, up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) within the pionless effective field theory (EFT). We also evaluate higher-order corrections due to the single-nucleon structure, which are expected to be the most important corrections beyond N3LO. We find a correlation between the deuteron charge and Friar radii, which can be useful to judge the quality of charge form factor parametrisations. We refine t…
We describe systems of two and three nucleons trapped in a harmonic-oscillator potential with interactions from the pionless effective field theory up to next-to-leading order (NLO). We construct the two-nucleon interaction using two-nucleon scattering information. We calculate the trapped levels in the three-nucleon system with isospin $T=1/2$ and determine the three-nucleon force needed for stability of the triton. We extract neutron-deuteron phase shifts, and show that the quartet scattering length is in good agreement with experimental data.
The charged-current double differential neutrino cross section, measured by the MiniBooNE Collaboration, has been analyzed using a microscopical model that accounts for, among other nuclear effects, long range nuclear (RPA) correlations and multinucleon scattering. We find that MiniBooNE data are fully compatible with the world average of the nucleon axial mass in contrast with several previous analyses which have suggested an anomalously large value. We also discuss the reliability of the algorithm used to estimate the neutrino energy.
Recently, we have worked out the axial two-nucleon current operator to leading one-loop order in chiral effective field theory using the method of unitary transformation. Our final expressions, however, differ from the ones derived by the JLab-Pisa group using time-ordered perturbation theory (Phys. Rev. C 93, no. 1, 015501 (2016) Erratum: [Phys. Rev. C 93, no. 4, 049902 (2016)] Erratum: [Phys. Rev. C 95, no. 5, 059901 (2017)]). In this paper we consider the box diagram contribution to the axial current and demonstrate that the results obtained using the two methods are unitary equivalent at t…
We investigate the axial-vector nucleon-to-delta transition form factors in the framework of relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory at the one-loop order using the complex-mass renormalization scheme. We determine the available six free parameters by fitting to an empirical parametrization of the form factors obtained from the BNL neutrino bubble chamber experiments. A unique feature of our calculation is the prediction of a non-vanishing form factor $C_3^A(Q^2)$. Moreover, our results show a surprising sensitivity to the coupling constant $\texttt{g}_1$ of the leading-order Lagrangian…
In this contribution, baryon axial-vector couplings are studied in the framework of the combined 1/Nc and chiral expansions. This framework is implemented on the basis of the emergent spin-flavor symmetry in baryons at large Nc and HBChPT, and linking both expansions (ξ-expansion), where 1/Nc is taken to be a quantity O(p). The study is carried out including one-loop contributions, which corresponds to O(ξ^3) for baryon masses and O(ξ^2) for the axial couplings. An analysis of the Lattice QCD results for the axial couplings of both N and Δis presented.
The axial form factor G_A of the nucleon is investigated for the Goldstone-boson-exchange constituent quark model using the point-form approach to relativistic quantum mechanics. The results, being covariant, show large contributions from relativistic boost effects. The predictions are obtained directly from the quark-model wave functions, without any further input such as vertex or constituent-quark form factors, and fall remarkably close to the available experimental data.
With twisted boundary conditions on the quark fields, we study nucleon matrix elements of the axial current utilizing twisted heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. One can explore the momentum transfer dependence of the axial form factors more easily than by using ordinary lattice quantized momenta alone. As examples, we derive expressions for the nucleon axial radius and pseudoscalar form factor.
The isospin breaking in the nucleon isovector axial charge, $g_A^3$, are calculated within the external field QCD sum-rule approach. The isospin violations arising from the difference in up and down current quark masses and in up and down quark condensates are included; electromagnetic effects are not considered. We find $δg^3_A/g^3_A \approx (0.5-1.0)\times 10^{-2}$, where $δg^3_A = (g^3_A)_p + (g^3_A)_n$ and $ g^3_A = [(g^3_A)_p - (g^3_A)_n]/2$. Using the Goldberger-Treiman relation, we also obtain an estimate of the isospin breaking in the pion-nucleon coupling constant, $(g_{ppπ_0}-g_{nnπ_…
