No Arabic abstract
The nuclear saturation mechanism is discussed in terms of two-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions in chiral effective field theory (Ch-EFT), using the framework of lowest-order Brueckner theory. After the Coester band, which is observed in calculating saturation points with various nucleon-nucleon (NN) forces, is revisited using modern NN potentials and their low-momentum equivalent interactions, detailed account of the saturation curve of the Ch-EFT interaction is presented. The three-nucleon force (3NF) is treated by reducing it to an effective two-body interaction by folding the third nucleon degrees of freedom. Uncertainties due to the choice of the 3NF low-energy constants $c_D$ and $c_E$ are discussed. The reduction of the cutoff-energy dependence of the NN potential is explained by demonstrating the effect of the 3NF in the $^1$S$_0$ and $^3$S$_1$ states.
We discuss the current status of chiral effective field theory in the three-nucleon sector and present selected results for nucleon-deuteron scattering observables based on semilocal momentum-space-regularized chiral two-nucleon potentials together with consistently regularized three-nucleon forces up to third chiral order. Using a Bayesian model for estimating truncation errors, the obtained results are found to provide a good description of the experimental data. We confirm our earlier findings that a high-precision description of nucleon-deuteron scattering data below pion production threshold will require the theory to be pushed to fifth chiral order. This conclusion is substantiated by an exploratory study of selected short-range contributions to the three-nucleon force at that order, which, as expected, are found to have significant effects on polarization observables at intermediate and high energies. We also outline the challenges that will need to be addressed in order to push the chiral expansion of three-nucleon scattering observables to higher orders.
Recently, we have shown that the continuity equation for the nuclear vector and axial current operators acquires additional terms if the latter depend on the energy transfer. We analyze in detail the electromagnetic single-nucleon four-current operators and verify the validity of the modified continuity equation for all one- and two-nucleon contributions up to fourth order in the chiral expansion. We also derive, for the first time, the leading contribution to the three-nucleon charge operator which appears at this order. Our study completes the derivation of the electroweak nuclear currents to fourth order in the chiral expansion.
Two-nucleon axial charge and current operators are derived in chiral effective field theory up to one loop. The derivation is based on time-ordered perturbation theory, and accounts for cancellations between the contributions of irreducible diagrams and the contributions due to non-static corrections from energy denominators of reducible diagrams. Ultraviolet divergencies associated with the loop corrections are isolated in dimensional regularization. The resulting axial current is finite and conserved in the chiral limit, while the axial charge requires renormalization. A complete set of contact terms for the axial charge up to the relevant order in the power counting is constructed.
Chiral effective field theory ($chi$EFT), as originally proposed by Weinberg, promises a theoretical connection between low-energy nuclear interactions and quantum chromodynamics (QCD). However, the important property of renormalization-group (RG) invariance is not fulfilled in current implementations and its consequences for predicting atomic nuclei beyond two- and three-nucleon systems has remained unknown. In this work we present a first and systematic study of recent RG-invariant formulations of $chi$EFT and their predictions for the binding energies and other observables of selected nuclear systems with mass-numbers up to $A =16$. Specifically, we have carried out ab initio no-core shell-model and coupled cluster calculations of the ground-state energy of $^3$H, $^{3,4}$He, $^{6}$Li, and $^{16}$O using several recent power-counting (PC) schemes at leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO), where the subleading interactions are treated in perturbation theory. Our calculations indicate that RG-invariant and realistic predictions can be obtained for nuclei with mass number $A leq 4$. We find, however, that $^{16}$O is either unbound with respect to the four $alpha$-particle threshold, or deformed, or both. Similarly, we find that the $^{6}$Li ground-state resides above the $alpha$-deuteron separation threshold. These results are in stark contrast with experimental data and point to either necessary fine-tuning of all relevant counterterms, or that current state-of-the-art RG-invariant PC schemes at LO in $chi$EFT lack necessary diagrams -- such as three-nucleon forces -- to realistically describe nuclei with mass number $A>4$.
The $Lambda N$ and $Sigma N$ interactions are considered at next-to-leading order in SU(3) chiral effective field theory. Different options for the low-energy constants that determine the strength of the contact interactions are explored. Two variants are analysed in detail which yield equivalent results for $Lambda N$ and $Sigma N$ scattering observables but differ in the strength of the $Lambda N to Sigma N$ transition potential. The influence of this difference on predictions for light hypernuclei and on the properties of the $Lambda$ and $Sigma$ hyperons in nuclear matter is investigated and discussed. The effect of the variation in the potential strength of the $Lambda N$-$Sigma N$ coupling (also called $Lambda -Sigma$ conversion) is found to be moderate for the considered $^3_Lambda rm H$ and $^4_Lambda rm He$ hypernuclei but sizable in case of the matter properties. Further, the size of three-body forces and their relation to different approaches to hypernuclear interactions is discussed.