Search

Interpreting measurements requires a physical theory, but the theory's accuracy may vary across the experimental domain. To optimize experimental design, and so to ensure that the substantial resources necessary for modern experiments are focused on acquiring the most valuable data, both the theory uncertainty and the expected pattern of experimental errors must be considered. We develop a Bayesian approach to this problem, and apply it to the example of proton Compton scattering. Chiral Effective Field Theory ($\chi$EFT) predicts the functional form of the scattering amplitude for this reaction, so that the electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon can be inferred from data. With increasing photon energy, both experimental rates and sensitivities to polarizabilities increase, but the accuracy of $\chi$EFT decreases. Our physics-based model of $\chi$EFT truncation errors is combined with present knowledge of the polarizabilities and reasonable assumptions about experimental capabilities at HI$\gamma$S and MAMI to assess the information gain from measuring specific observables at specific kinematics, \emph{i.e.}, to determine the relative amount by which new data are apt to shrink uncertainties. The strongest gains would likely come from new data on the spin observables $\Sigma_{2x}$ and $\Sigma_{2x^\prime}$ at $\omega\simeq140$ to $200$ MeV and $40^\circ$ to $120^\circ$. These would tightly constrain $\gamma_{E1E1}-\gamma_{E1M2}$. New data on the differential cross section between $100$ and $200$\,MeV and over a wide angle range will substantially improve constraints on $\alpha_{E1}-\beta_{M1}$, $\gamma_\pi$ and $\gamma_{M1M1}-\gamma_{M1E2}$. Good signals also exist around $160$ MeV for $\Sigma_3$ and $\Sigma_{2z^\prime}$. Such data will be pivotal in the continuing quest to pin down the scalar polarizabilities and refine understanding of the spin polarizabilities., Comment: 47 pages LaTeX2e (pdflatex) including 33 figures as .jpg files using includegraphics. Improved presentation with corrections do not affect the conclusions by details of the figures. Higher-resolution figures are available at https://home.gwu.edu/~hgrie/Compton/one-N-comprehensive-observables-delta4.v2.0.high-resolution-figures.tgz. Final version with minor corrections published in EPJA57(2021)81

We consider the response of nucleons and light nuclei to electromagnetic fields to test the ability of chiral effective field theory to describe such systems in a consistent and systematically-improvable manner.

I discuss the use of chiral effective field theory (χEFT) to describe electromagnetic reactions in the two- and three-nucleon systems. I review the results of χEFT power counting for charge and current operators up to [Formula: see text] relative to leading order, before showing that renormalization-group arguments imply that short-distance electromagnetic operators play a larger role than suggested by this standard counting. A detailed examination of χEFT's predictions for the electromagnetic form factors of deuterium and the trinucleons, and for the threshold captures np→dγ and nd→tγ, enables a critical appraisal of the theory's performance in these contexts. Recent χEFT calculations using the [Formula: see text] chiral perturbation theory (χPT) potential yielded both form factors that agree with experimental data for Q22 and an excellent description of the challenging threshold captures. Short-distance M1 operators are essential to this success, and the addition of a short-distance part of the nucleon–nucleon charge operator produces precise predictions of the deuteron charge and quadrupole form factors in this kinematic domain.

Nuclear halos emerge as new degrees of freedom near the neutron and proton driplines. They consist of a core and one or a few nucleons which spend most of their time in the classically-forbidden region outside the range of the interaction. Individual nucleons inside the core are thus unresolved in the halo configuration, and the low-energy effective interactions are short-range forces between the core and the valence nucleons. Similar phenomena occur in clusters of $^4$He atoms, cold atomic gases near a Feshbach resonance, and some exotic hadrons. In these weakly-bound quantum systems universal scaling laws for s-wave binding emerge that are independent of the details of the interaction. Effective field theory (EFT) exposes these correlations and permits the calculation of non-universal corrections to them due to short-distance effects, as well as the extension of these ideas to systems involving the Coulomb interaction and/or binding in higher angular-momentum channels. Halo nuclei exhibit all these features. Halo EFT, the EFT for halo nuclei, has been used to compute the properties of single-neutron, two-neutron, and single-proton halos of s-wave and p-wave type. This review summarizes these results for halo binding energies, radii, Coulomb dissociation, and radiative capture, as well as the connection of these properties to scattering parameters, thereby elucidating the universal correlations between all these observables. We also discuss how Halo EFT's encoding of the long-distance physics of halo nuclei can be used to check and extend ab initio calculations that include detailed modeling of their short-distance dynamics., Comment: 104 pages, 31 figures. Topical Review for Journal of Physics G. v2 incorporates several modifications, particularly to the Introduction, in response to referee reports. It also corrects multiple typos in the original submission. It corresponds to the published version

We present an analysis of $13$ observables in Compton scattering on the proton. Cross sections, asymmetries with polarised beam and/or targets, and polarisation-transfer observables are investigated for energies up to the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance to determine their sensitivity to the proton's dipole scalar and spin polarisabilities. The Chiral Effective Field Theory Compton amplitude we use is complete at N$^4$LO, $\mathcal{O(}e^2\delta^4)$, for photon energies $\omega\sim m_\pi$, and so has an accuracy of a few per cent there. At photon energies in the resonance region it is complete at NLO, $\mathcal{O}(e^2\delta^0)$, and so its accuracy there is about $20$\%. We find that for energies from pion-production threshold to about $250\;\mathrm{MeV}$, multiple asymmetries have significant sensitivity to presently ill-determined combinations of proton spin polarisabilities. We also argue that the broad outcomes of this analysis will be replicated in complementary theoretical approaches, e.g., dispersion relations. Finally, we show that below the pion-production threshold, $6$ observables suffice to reconstruct the Compton amplitude, and above it $11$ are required. Although not necessary for polarisability extractions, this opens the possibility to perform "complete" Compton-scattering experiments. An interactive Mathematica notebook, including results for the neutron, is available from judith.mcgovern@manchester.ac.uk ., Comment: 75 pages LaTeX2e (pdflatex) including 37 figures as .pdf files using includegraphics; minor corrections. Text-identical to published version but including the Online Supplement. Higher-resolution figures are available at http://home.gwu.edu/~hgrie/Compton/one-N-comprehensive-observables-delta4.v2.0.high-resolution-figures.tgz

We apply the large-${N}_{c}$ expansion to the time-reversal-invariance-violating (TV) nucleon-nucleon potential. The operator structures contributing to next-to-next-to-leading order in the large-${N}_{c}$ counting are constructed. For the TV and parity-violating case we find a single operator structure at leading order. The TV but parity-conserving potential contains two leading-order terms, which, however, are suppressed by $1/{N}_{c}$ compared to the parity-violating potential. Comparison with phenomenological potentials, including the chiral effective field theory potential in the TV parity-violating case, leads to large-${N}_{c}$ scaling relations for TV meson-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon couplings.

We have recently completed a high-precision extraction of the proton spin-independent polarisabilities from the world database of low-energy Compton scattering experiments, within the framework of chiral effective field theory (ChEFT) with pions, nucleons, and the Delta(1232) as explicit degrees of freedom. Our Baldin-sum-rule-constrained results are, in units of $10^{-4}$~fm$^3$, alphae_p=10.65 \pm 0.35(stat)\pm 0.2(Baldin)\pm 0.3(theory) betam_p=3.15 \mp 0.35(stat)\pm 0.2(Baldin)\mp 0.3(theory).These were obtained in the heavy-baryon formulation, but almost identical results have been obtained ina covariant calculation.With the publication this year by Myers et al of the results of the deuteron Comptonscattering experiment using the Tagged-Photon Facility at the MAX IV Laboratory in Lund,Sweden, the world database has doubled in size, allowing the extraction of the isoscalar polarisabilities with unprecedented accuracy, and combined with the proton results we obtain alphae_n =11.65 \pm 1.25(stat) \pm 0.2(Baldin)\pm 0.8(theory), betam_n = 3.55 \mp 1.25(stat) \pm 0.2(Baldin) \mp 0.8(theory).A new generation of experiments with polarised beams have been performed at the Mainz Microtron, with the first results published this year by Martel et al, These experiments are sensitive to the spin polarisabilities, and we will discuss the predictions of ChEFT for the relevant cross sections and asymmetries.

We examine the results of Chiral Effective Field Theory ($\chi$EFT) for the scalar- and spin-dipole polarisabilities of the proton and neutron, both for the physical pion mass and as a function of $m_\pi$. This provides chiral extrapolations for lattice-QCD polarisability computations. We include both the leading and sub-leading effects of the nucleon's pion cloud, as well as the leading ones of the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance and its pion cloud. The analytic results are complete at N$^2$LO in the $\delta$-counting for pion masses close to the physical value, and at leading order for pion masses similar to the Delta-nucleon mass splitting. In order to quantify the truncation error of our predictions and fits as $68$\% degree-of-belief intervals, we use a Bayesian procedure recently adapted to EFT expansions. At the physical point, our predictions for the spin polarisabilities are, within respective errors, in good agreement with alternative extractions using experiments and dispersion-relation theory. At larger pion masses we find that the chiral expansion of all polarisabilities becomes intrinsically unreliable as $m_\pi$ approaches about $300\;$MeV---as has already been seen in other observables. $\chi$EFT also predicts a substantial isospin splitting above the physical point for both the electric and magnetic scalar polarisabilities; and we speculate on the impact this has on the stability of nucleons. Our results agree very well with emerging lattice computations in the realm where $\chi$EFT converges. Curiously, for the central values of some of our predictions, this agreement persists to much higher pion masses. We speculate on whether this might be more than a fortuitous coincidence., Comment: 39 pages LaTeX2e (pdflatex) including 12 figures as 16 .pdf files using includegraphics. Version approved for publication in EPJA includes modifications, clarifications and removal of typographical errors in refereeing and publication process

We examine the extent to which the properties of three-nucleon bound states are well-reproduced in the limit that nuclear forces satisfy Wigner's SU(4) (spin-isospin) symmetry. To do this we compute the charge radii up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in an effective field theory (EFT) that is an expansion in powers of $R/a$, with $R$ the range of the nuclear force and $a$ the nucleon-nucleon ($N\!N$) scattering lengths. In the Wigner-SU(4) limit, the triton and Helium-3 point charge radii are equal. At NLO in the range expansion both are $1.66$ fm. Adding the first-order corrections due to the breaking of Wigner symmetry in the $N\!N$ scattering lengths gives a ${}^3\mathrm{H}$ point charge radius of $1.58$ fm, which is remarkably close to the experimental number, $1.5978\pm0.040$ fm (Angeli and Marinova in At Data Nucl Data Tables 99:69-95, 2013). For the ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ point charge radius we find $1.70$ fm, about 4% away from the experimental value of $1.77527\pm0.0054$ fm (Angeli and Marinova 2013). We also examine the Faddeev components that enter the tri-nucleon wave function and find that an expansion of them in powers of the symmetry-breaking parameter converges rapidly. Wigner's SU(4) symmetry is thus a useful starting point for understanding tri-nucleon bound-state properties., Comment: v1: 22 pages, 6 figures, v2: 23 pages 6 figures

We review theoretical progress and prospects for determining the nucleon’s static dipole polarisabilities from Compton scattering on few-nucleon targets, including new values; see Refs. [1–5] for details and a more thorough bibliography.

We have discovered an error in the numerical calculations for the extraction of parameters from the nucleon mass “data” presented in Sections 4 and 5 of our paper [M.R. Schindler, D.R. Phillips, Ann. Phys. 324 (2009) 682. Available from: ]. We present the corrected results and discuss the implications. We stress that the material presented in Sections 1–3 of our paper [M.R. Schindler, D.R. Phillips, Ann. Phys. 324 (2009) 682. Available from: ] is unaffected.

Several experimental investigations have observed parity violation (PV) in nuclear systems—a consequence of the weak force between quarks. We apply the 1 / N c expansion of QCD to the P -violating T -conserving component of the nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential. We show there are two leading-order operators, both of which affect p → p scattering at order N c . We find an additional four operators at order N c 0 sin 2 θ W and six at O ( 1 / N c ) . Pion exchange in the PV NN force is suppressed by 1 / N c and sin 2 θ W , providing a quantitative explanation for its nonobservation up to this time. The large- N c hierarchy of other PV NN force mechanisms is consistent with estimates of the couplings in phenomenological models. The PV observed in p → p scattering data is compatible with natural values for the strong and weak coupling constants: there is no evidence of fine-tuning.

We examine elastic Compton scattering off the deuteron for photon energies between 50 MeV and 100 MeV in the framework of chiral effective field theories to next-to-leading order. We compare one theoretical scheme with only pions and nucleons as explicit degrees of freedom to another in which the Δ ( 1232 ) resonance is treated as an explicit degree of freedom. Whereas pion degrees of freedom suffice to describe the experimental data measured at about 70 MeV, the explicit Δ ( 1232 ) gives important contributions that help to reproduce the angular dependence at higher energies. The static isoscalar dipole polarizabilities α E s and β M s are fitted to the available data, giving results for the neutron polarizabilities α E n = ( 14.6 ± 2.0 ( stat ) ± 1.1 ( wf ) ) × 10 −4 fm 3 , β M n = ( 1.4 ± 2.2 ( stat ) ± 0.1 ( wf ) ) × 10 −4 fm 3 with “wf” denoting the error due to the dependence on the deuteron wave function. These values are in good agreement with previous experimental analyses. Comparing them to the currently accepted proton values we conclude that there is no evidence for significant differences between the proton and neutron electromagnetic dipole polarizabilities.

Motivated by recent advances in the application of effective field theory techniques to light nuclei we revisit the problem of electron-deuteron scattering in these approaches. By sidestepping problems with the description of electron-nucleon scattering data in effective field theories, we show that the effective theory expansion for deuteron physics converges well over a wide range of momentum transfers. The resultant description of the physics of the two-nucleon system is good up to virtual photon momenta of order 700 MeV., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures

The electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon are fundamental properties that describe its response to external electric and magnetic fields. They can be extracted from Compton-scattering data --- and have been, with good accuracy, in the case of the proton. In contradistinction, information for the neutron requires the use of Compton scattering from nuclear targets. Here we report a new measurement of elastic photon scattering from deuterium using quasimonoenergetic tagged photons at the MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, Sweden. These first new data in more than a decade effectively double the world dataset. Their energy range overlaps with previous experiments and extends it by 20 MeV to higher energies. An analysis using Chiral Effective Field Theory with dynamical \Delta(1232) degrees of freedom shows the data are consistent with and within the world dataset. After demonstrating that the fit is consistent with the Baldin sum rule, extracting values for the isoscalar nucleon polarizabilities and combining them with a recent result for the proton, we obtain the neutron polarizabilities as \alpha_n = [11.55 +/- 1.25(stat) +/- 0.2(BSR) +/- 0.8(th)] X 10^{-4} fm^3 and \beta_n = [3.65 -/+ 1.25(stat) +/- 0.2(BSR) -/+ 0.8(th)] X 10^{-4} fm3, with \chi^2 = 45.2 for 44 degrees of freedom., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, comments from Physical Review Letters Referees addressed

The results given for the isoscalar combinations of nucleon electromagnetic polarizabilities in [Phys. Lett. B 567 (2003) 200] are incorrect. After correcting errors in our O ( Q 4 ) chiral perturbation theory calculation of elastic γd scattering we obtain a fit to recent experimental data with χ 2 / d.o.f. = 26.6 / 20 . For the isoscalar electric polarizability this fit yields α N = ( 13.0 ± 1.9 ( stat ) ) −1.5 +3.9 ( theory ) , while β N is consistent with zero within sizable error bars. These mistakes in our γd calculation do not affect the results quoted in [Phys. Lett. B 567 (2003) 200] for the proton polarizabilities.

The operator structures that can contribute to three-nucleon forces are classified in the 1/Nc expansion. At leading order in 1/Nc a spin-flavor independent term is present, as are the spin-flavor structures associated with the Fujita-Miyazawa three-nucleon force. Modern phenomenological three-nucleon forces are thus consistent with this O(Nc) leading force, corrections to which are suppressed by a power series in 1/Nc^2. A complete basis of operators for the three-nucleon force, including all independent momentum structures, is given explicitly up to next-to-leading order in the 1/Nc expansion., Comment: 35 pages, 1 figure

We review theoretical progress and prospects to understand the nucleon’s static dipole polarisabilities from Compton scattering on few-nucleon targets, including new values; see Refs. [1–5] for details and a more thorough bibliography.

Experiments to measure Compton scattering from the proton are presently being pursued at a number of fa- cilities around the world, including MAMI (Mainz) and HIS at TUNL. Chiral effective field theory (�EFT) is one of the main theoretical techniques used to analyze p scattering data in the energy range !lab < 350 MeV. �EFT generates the most general Compton amplitude that is consistent with electromagnetic gauge invariance, the pattern of chiral-symmetry breaking in QCD, and Lorentz covariance, to any given order of the small pa- rameter P � {!,m�}/�, with ! the photon energy, m� the pion mass andthe breakdown scale of the theory. By now, �EFT calculations of the p amplitude ex- ist in several different variants of the theory. Two key choices must be made: whether to include the �(1232) resonance explicitly, and whether to maintain exact Lorentz covariance or not. The pioneering calculations of Compton scattering inEFT (2, 3) were performed in a theory with only nucleons and pions as explicit de- grees of freedom: the effects of thewere encoded in a string of contact operators. This reduces the break- down scalefrom its nominal value around the mass of themeson to the energy at which theis excited, i.e. MMN � 300 MeV. In addition this work employed the heavy-baryon (HB) expansion for the nucleon propa- gators, which amounts to making an expansion in 1/MN, alongside the EFT expansion in P. In these calculations the polarizabilities � (p)1 and � (p)1 are predicted at order P 3 , and these predictions are in remarkably good agree- ment with present extractions from data (4, 5). The cor- responding results for p observables agree moderately well with data for !, p |t| < 150 MeV (6-8). Beyond this domain the absence of thesignificantly affects the abil- ity of thisEFT variant to describe the physics, at least at this low order in the expansion.

Compton scattering provides important insight into the structure of the nucleon. For photons up to about 300 MeV, it is parameterised by six dynamical dipole polarisabilities which characterise the response of the nucleon to a monochromatic photon of fixed frequency and multipolarity. Their zero-energy limit yields the well-known static electric and magnetic dipole polarisabilities \alpha and \beta, and the four dipole spin polarisabilities. Chiral Effective Field Theory (ChiEFT) describes nucleon, deuteron and 3-He Compton scattering, using consistent nuclear currents, rescattering and wave functions. It can thus also be used to extract useful information on the neutron amplitude from Compton scattering on light nuclei. We summarise past work in ChiEFT on all of these reactions and compare with other theoretical approaches. We also discuss all proton experiments up to about 400 MeV, as well as the three modern elastic deuteron data sets, paying particular attention to precision and accuracy of each set. Constraining the Delta(1232) parameters from the resonance region, we then perform new fits to the proton data up to omega(lab)=170 MeV, and a new fit to the deuteron data. After checking in each case that a two-parameter fit is compatible with the respective Baldin sum rules, we obtain, using the sum-rule constraints in a one-parameter fit, \alpha=10.7\pm0.3(stat)\pm0.2(Baldin)\pm0.8(theory), \beta=3.1\mp0.3(stat)\pm0.2(Baldin)\pm0.8(theory), for the proton polarisabilities, and \alpha =10.9\pm 0.9(stat)\pm0.2(Baldin)\pm0.8(theory), \beta =3.6\mp 0.9(stat)\pm0.2(Baldin)\pm0.8(theory), for the isoscalar polarisabilities, each in units of 10^(-4) fm^3. We discuss plans for polarised Compton scattering, their promise as tools to access spin polarisabilities, and other future avenues for theoretical and experimental investigation., Comment: 82 pages LaTeX2e including 24 figures as .eps file embedded with includegraphicx; review for Prog. Part Nucl Phys. Final version identical to published areticle; spelling and grammar corrected

Important contributions to meson-nucleus scattering are produced by terms in the multiple-scattering series, which is defined as the sum of all diagrams where the meson scatters back and forth between a pair of static nucleons before leaving the nucleus. In particular, the sum of this series is needed for an accurate description of kaon-deuteron scattering, and appears as part of the nucleon-nucleon potential. In this article we present some effective-field-theory (EFT)-based insights into this series in the case of two-nucleon systems. In particular, we discuss the fact that, if meson-nucleon scattering is approximated by the scattering-length term, individual terms of the series are divergent, and enhanced with respect to the straightforward expectation from chiral perturbation theory ($\chi$PT). This apparently indicates the presence of similarly enhanced counterterms. However, we show that when the series is resummed the divergences cancel, such that no additional information on short-range interactions is needed to obtain predictions for observables after resummation. We discuss the conditions under which this resummation is justified. We show that the same issues arise in the $NN$ potential, where the resummed series produces poles whose appearance indicates the breakdown scale of the $\chi$PT expansion for that quantity. This demonstrates unequivocally that $\chi$PT cannot be applied to compute $V(r)$ for distances smaller than $r \sim 1$ fm at least in the theory without explicit Delta(1232) degrees of freedom. We briefly discuss whether this bound can be lowered if the Delta resonance is included in the EFT as an explicit degree of freedom., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

I discuss how effective theories and numerical simulations of Quantum Chromodynamics are together helping us understand the interaction between neutrons and protons. Explicit numerical evaluation of the QCD path integral, using lattice methods and super‐computers, appears to be the best option for calculations of QCD in the non‐perturbative regime. I show that complementary information is provided by effective theories, which can help to relate these intensive “lattice QCD” calculations to nuclear‐physics experiments. I place particular emphasis on the way in which the long‐distance symmetries of QCD observed in lattice simulations constrain the interactions of neutrons and protons with one another, and I show how this leads to predictions for electron scattering from light nuclei.

I discuss the conditions under which the application of chiral perturbation theory to the NN potential gives reliable results for NN scattering phase shifts. ChiPT also yields a convergent expansion for the deuteron charge operator. For cutoffs < 1 GeV, this produces precise predictions for deuterium's quadrupole and charge form factors in the range Q^2 < 0.25 GeV^2., 4 pages, 4 figures. Contribution to Proceedings of "12th International Conference on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon", Williamsburg, VA, May 31-June 4, 2010

We report on a chiral effective field theory calculation of Compton scattering from the proton. Our calculation includes pions, nucleons, and the Delta(1232) as explicit degrees of freedom. It uses the "delta expansion", and so implements the hierarchy of scales m_pi < M_Delta-M_N < Lambda_chi. In this expansion the power counting in the vicinity of the Delta peak changes, and resummation of the loop graphs associated with the Delta width is indicated. We have computed the nucleon Compton amplitude in the delta expansion up to N3LO for photon energies of the order of m_pi. This is the first order at which the proton Compton scattering amplitudes receive contributions from contact operators which encode contributions to the spin-independent polarisabilities from states with energies of the order of Lambda_chi. We fit the coefficients of these two operators to the experimental proton Compton data that has been taken in the relevant photon-energy domain, and are in a position to extract new results for the proton polarisabilities alpha and beta., 6 pages. Proceeding of Sixth International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics, Bern (Switzerland), 6th -- 10th July 2009. To be published in PoS

We analyze parity-violating nucleon-nucleon scattering at energies E, Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, minor changes, version to appear in Nuclear Physics A

We evaluate the deuteron charge, quadrupole, and magnetic form factors using wave functions obtained from chiral effective theory ($\chi$ET) when the potential includes one-pion exchange, chiral two-pion exchange, and genuine contact interactions. We study the manner in which the results for form factors behave as the regulator is removed from the $\chi$ET calculation, and compare co-ordinate- and momentum-space approaches. We show that, for both the LO and NNLO chiral potential, results obtained by imposing boundary conditions in co-ordinate space at $r=0$ are equivalent to the $\Lambda \to \infty$ limit of momentum-space calculations. The regulator-independent predictions for deuteron form factors that result from taking the $\Lambda \to \infty$ limit using the LO $\chi$ET potential are in reasonable agreement with data up to momentum transfers of order 600 MeV, provided that phenomenological information for nucleon structure is employed. In this range the use of the NNLO $\chi$ET potential results in only small changes to the LO predictions, and it improves the description of the zero of the charge form factor.

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. At this ``critical'' pion mass, the triton has infinitely many excited states with an accumulation point at the three-nucleon threshold. We compute the binding energies of these states up to next-to-next-to-leading order in the pionless EFT and study the convergence pattern of the EFT in the vicinity of the critical pion mass. Furthermore, we use the pionless EFT to predict how doublet and quartet nd scattering lengths depend on mpi in the region between the physical pion mass and mpi=mpi_c., 24 pages, 9 figures

Recently, muon production in electron-proton scattering has been suggested as a possible candidate reaction for the identification of lepton-flavor violation due to physics beyond the Standard Model. Here we point out that the Standard-Model processes $e^- p \to \mu^- p \bar{\nu}_\mu \nu_e$ and $e^- p \to e^- n \mu^+ \nu_\mu$ can cloud potential beyond-the-Standard-Model signals in electron-proton collisions. We find that Standard-Model $e p \to \mu X$ cross sections exceed those from lepton-flavor-violating operators by several orders of magnitude. We also discuss the possibility of using a nuclear target to enhance the $e p \to \mu X$ signal., Comment: 24 pages. Additional figure showing energy-dependence of total cross section, minor changes to text. Conclusions unaltered. This version to appear in Physical Review D

We use chiral effective theory to predict the deuteron form factor ratio G_C/G_Q as well as ratios of deuteron to nucleon form factors. These ratios are calculated to next-to-next-to-leading order. At this order the chiral expansion for the NN isoscalar charge operator (including consistently calculated 1/M corrections) is a parameter-free prediction of the effective theory. Use of this operator in conjunction with NLO and NNLO chiral effective theory wave functions produces results that are consistent with extant experimental data for Q^2 < 0.35 GeV^2. These wave functions predict a deuteron quadrupole moment G_Q(Q^2=0)=0.278-0.282 fm^2-with the variation arising from short-distance contributions to this quantity. The variation is of the same size as the discrepancy between the theoretical result and the experimental value. This motivates the renormalization of G_Q via a two-nucleon operator that couples to quadrupole photons. After that renormalization we obtain a robust prediction for the shape of G_C/G_Q at Q^2 < 0.3 GeV^2. This allows us to make precise, model-independent predictions for the values of this ratio that will be measured at the lower end of the kinematic range explored at BLAST. We also present results for the ratio G_C/G_M., 31 pages, 7 figures

We show that chiral symmetry and gauge invariance enforce relations between the short-distance physics that occurs in a number of electroweak and pionic reactions on light nuclei. Within chiral perturbation theory this is manifested via the appearance of the same axial isovector two-body contact term in pi- d -> n n gamma, p-wave pion production in NN collisions, tritium beta decay, pp fusion, nu d scattering, and the hep reaction. Using a Gamow-Teller matrix element obtained from calculations of pp fusion as input we compute the neutron spectrum obtained in pi- d -> n n gamma. With the short-distance physics in this process controlled from p p -> d e+ nu_e the theoretical uncertainty in the nn scattering length extracted from pi- d -> n n gamma is reduced by a factor larger than three, to, REVTeX4, 4 pages (5 pages since the arXiv doesn't collapse refs), 3 eps figures; revised version to appear in PRL, conclusions unchanged

We consider matrix elements of two-nucleon operators that arise in chiral effective theories of the two-nucleon system. Generically, the short-distance piece of these operators scales as 1/r^n, with r the relative separation of the two nucleons. We show that, when evaluated between the leading-order wave functions obtained in this effective theory, these two-nucleon operators are independent of the cutoff used to renormalize the two-body problem for n=1 and 2. However, for n greater than or equal to 3 general arguments about the short-distance behavior of the leading-order deuteron wave function show that the matrix element will diverge., Comment: 7 pages, 5 .eps figures

We consider the relationship between P-wave pi-N scattering and the strength of the P-wave two-pion-exchange three-nucleon interaction (TPE3NI). We explain why effective theories that do not contain the delta resonance as an explicit degree of freedom tend to overestimate the strength of the TPE3NI. The overestimation can be remedied by higher-order terms in these ``delta-less'' theories, but such terms are not yet included in state-of-the-art chiral EFT calculations of the nuclear force. This suggests that these calculations can only predict the strength of the TPE3NI to an accuracy of +/-25%., 13 pages, 2 figures, uses epsf

I discuss relativistic models of few-nucleon systems, with particular emphasis on calculations of electron-deuteron scattering and the comparison of these calculations with recent data from Jefferson Lab., 9 pages, 2 figures. Invited talk at 17th International Conference on Few-body Problems in Physics, Durham, NC, June 5-10, 2003

We formulate a new power-counting scheme for a chiral effective field theory of nucleons, pions, and Deltas. This extends chiral perturbation theory into the Delta-resonance region. We calculate nucleon Compton scattering up to next-to-leading order in this theory. The resultant description of existing $\gamma$p cross section data is very good for photon energies up to about 300 MeV. We also find reasonable numbers for the spin-independent polarizabilities $\alpha_p$ and $\beta_p$.

Model-independent effects of $\Delta$(1232) excitation on nucleon polarizabilities are computed in a Lorentz-invariant fashion. We find a large effect of relative order $(M_\Delta - M)/M$ in some of the spin polarizabilities, with the backward spin polarizability receiving the largest contribution. Similar subleading effects are found to be important in the fourth-order spin-independent polarizabilities $\alpha_{E\nu}$, $\al_{E2}$, $\be_{M\nu}$, and $\be_{M 2}$. Combining our results with those for the model-independent effects of pion loops we obtain predictions for spin and fourth-order polarizabilities which compare favorably with the results of a recent dispersion-relation analysis of data., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figs, 4 tables; substantial revision, calculation of higher order polarizabilities included

An effective field theory is used to give a model-independent description of Compton scattering at energies comparable to the pion mass. The amplitudes for scattering on the proton and the deuteron, calculated to fourth order in small momenta in chiral perturbation theory, contain four undetermined parameters that are in one-to-one correspondence with the nucleon polarizabilities. These polarizabilities are extracted from fits to data on elastic photon scattering on hydrogen and deuterium. For the proton we find: alpha_p = 12.1 +/- 1.1 +/- 0.5, beta_p = 3.4 +/- 1.1 +/- 0.1, both in units of 10^{-4} fm^3. For the isoscalar polarizabilities we obtain: alpha_N = 13.0 +/- 1.9 +3.9/-1.5 (in the same units) while beta_N is consistent with zero, within sizeable error bars., 13 pages, 3 figures, uses revtex4, epsf. Replacement reflects version published in Physics Letters B. However, it also corrects incorrect results for the isoscalar polarizabilities that are present in both the previous archive and published versions. The results for the proton polarizabilities are unchanged

The pion-deuteron scattering length is computed to next-to-next-to-leading order in baryon chiral perturbation theory. A modified power-counting is then formulated which properly accounts for infrared enhancements engendered by the large size of the deuteron, as compared to the pion Compton wavelength. We use the precise experimental value of the real part of the pion-deuteron scattering length determined from the decay of pionic deuterium, together with constraints on pion-nucleon scattering lengths from the decay of pionic hydrogen, to extract the isovector and isoscalar S-wave pion-nucleon scattering lengths, a^- and a^+, respectively. We find a^-=(0.0918 \pm 0.0013) M_\pi^{-1} and a^+=(-0.0034 \pm 0.0007) M_\pi^{-1}., Comment: 19 pages LaTeX, 7 eps figs

We discuss under which circumstances the resummation of the multiple-scattering series is justified from an EFT point of view. The application to πd and K̅d scattering is briefly discussed.

Neutrino and axion production in neutron stars occurs mainly as bremsstrahlung from nucleon-nucleon (NN) scattering. The energy radiated via neutrinos or axions is typically very small compared to other scales in the two-nucleon system. The rate of emission of such "soft" radiation is directly related to the on-shell NN amplitude, and thereby to the NN experimental data. This facilitates the model-independent calculation of the neutrino and axion radiation rates which is presented here. We find that the resultant rates are a factor of four below earlier estimates based on a one-pion-exchange NN amplitude., 5 pages, 2 figures, revtex, uses epsfig.sty. Revised version has minor modifications to the text and references, as well as some changes to the numerical results. The conclusions are unchanged

One of the strongest constraints on the existence of large, compact, "gravity-only" dimensions comes from SN1987a. If the rate of energy loss into these putative extra dimensions is too high, then the neutrino pulse from the supernova will differ from that actually seen. The dominant mechanism for the production of Kaluza-Klein gravitons and dilatons in the supernova is via gravistrahlung and dilastrahlung from the nucleon-nucleon system. In this paper we compute the rates for these processes in a model-independent way using low-energy theorems which relate the emissivities to the measured nucleon-nucleon cross section. This is possible because for soft gravitons and dilatons the leading contribution to the energy-loss rate is from graphs in which the gravitational radiation is produced from external nucleon legs. Previous calculations neglected these mechanisms. We re-evaluate the bounds on toroidally-compactified "gravity-only" dimensions (GODs), and find that consistency with the observed SN1987a neutrino signal requires that if there are two such dimensions then their radius must be less than 1 micron., Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes to first two paragraphs of introduction

The central tenet of effective theory is that the details of short-distance physics will not have a significant impact on low-energy observables. Here we perform an analysis of electron-deuteron scattering at low momentum transfers which is based on effective field theory. We show that in our approach the deuteron electromagnetic form factors $F_C$ and $F_M$ indeed are largely insensitive to the short-range $NN$ potential at momenta $Q$ up to about 700 MeV. We also find that the effective field theory approach to deuteron electromagnetic structure provides a systematic justification for many features which have been seen in potential model calculations of the same quantities., Comment: 40 pages, 13 figures, LaTeX, version accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics A. Minor changes to text to clarify certain points

Some form of nonperturbative regularization is necessary if effective field theory treatments of the NN interaction are to yield finite answers. We discuss various regularization schemes used in the literature. Two of these methods involve formally iterating the divergent interaction and then regularizing and renormalizing the resultant amplitude. Either a (sharp or smooth) cutoff can be introduced, or dimensional regularization can be applied. We show that these two methods yield different results after renormalization. Furthermore, if a cutoff is used, the NN phase shift data cannot be reproduced if the cutoff is taken to infinity. We also argue that the assumptions which allow the use of dimensional regularization in perturbative EFT calculations are violated in this problem. Another possibility is to introduce a regulator into the potential before iteration and then keep the cutoff parameter finite. We argue that this does not lead to a systematically-improvable NN interaction., 5 pages, LaTeX, uses espcrc1.sty, summary of talk given at the 15th International Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics

We discuss a number of constraints on the effects of zero-range potentials in quantum mechanics. We show that for such a potential $p \cot(\delta)$, where $p$ is the momentum of the nucleon in the center of mass frame and $\delta$ is the S-wave phase shift, must be a monotonically decreasing function of energy. This implies that the effective range of the potential is non-positive. We also examine scattering from the sum of two potentials, one of which is a short-range interaction. We find that if the short-range interaction is of zero-range then it must be attractive, and the logarithmic derivative of the radial wave function at the origin must be a monotonically decreasing function of energy. If the short-range interaction is not of zero range then a constraint which gives the minimum possible range for it to fit the phase shifts exists. The implications of these results for effective field theory treatments of nucleon-nucleon interactions are discussed., Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Lett. B. Minor changes to the text have been made in order to clarify the scope of the paper

We investigate in detail the effect of making the range of the ``contact'' interaction used in effective field theory (EFT) calculations of NN scattering finite. This is done in both an effective field theory with explicit pions, and one where the pions have been integrated out. In both cases we calculate NN scattering in the ${}^1 S_0$ channel using potentials which are second-order in the EFT expansion. The contact interactions present in the EFT Lagrangian are made finite by use of a square-well regulator. We find that there is an optimal radius for this regulator, at which second-order corrections to the EFT are identically zero; for radii near optimal these second-order corrections are small. The cutoff EFTs which result from this procedure appear to be valid for momenta up to about 100 MeV/c. We also find that the radius of the square well cannot be reduced to zero if the theory is to reproduce both the experimental scattering length and effective range. Indeed, we show that, if the NN potential is the sum of a one-pion exchange piece and a short-range interaction, then the short-range piece must extend out beyond 1.1 fm, regardless of its particular form., Comment: 15 pages, RevTeX, uses BoxedEPS.tex