pd capture processes at various energies have been analyzed based on solutions of 3N-Faddeev equations and using modern NN forces. The application of the Siegert theorem is compared to the explicit use of $pi$- and $rho$-like exchange currents connected to the AV18 NN interaction. Overall good agreement with cross sections and spin observables has been obtained but leaving room for improvement in some cases. Feasibility studies for 3NFs consistently included in the 3N continuum and the 3N bound state have been performed as well.
The astrophysical $S$-factor for the radiative capture $d(p,gamma)^3$He in the energy-range of interest for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is calculated using an {it ab-initio} approach. The nuclear Hamiltonian retains both two- and three-nucleon interactions - the Argonne $v_{18}$ and the Urbana IX, respectively. Both one- and many-body contributions to the nuclear current operator are included. The former retain for the first time, besides the $1/m$ leading order contribution ($m$ is the nucleon mass), also the next-to-leading order term, proportional to $1/m^3$. The many-body currents are constructed in order to satisfy the current conservation relation with the adopted Hamiltonian model. The hyperspherical harmonics technique is applied to solve the $A=3$ bound and scattering states. A particular attention is used in this second case in order to obtain, in the energy range of BBN, an uncertainty on the astrophysical $S$-factor of the order or below $sim$1 %. Then, in this energy range, the $S$-factor is found to be $sim$10 % larger than the currently adopted values.Part of this increase (1-3 %) is due to the $1/m^3$ one-body operator, while the remaining is due to the new more accurate scattering wave functions. We have studied the implication of this new determination for the $d(p,gamma)^3$He $S$-factor on deuterium primordial abundance. We find that the predicted theoretical value for $^2$H/H is in excellent agreement with its experimental determination, using the most recent determination of baryon density of Planck experiment, and with a standard number of relativistic degrees of freedom $N_{rm eff}=3.046$ during primordial nucleosynthesis.
A short overview of motivations and successes of two-body exchange currents between constituent quarks for electromagnetic hadron observables like charge radii, magnetic and quadrupole moments is given. We then predict and analyze exchange current effects on the radiative decay widths of decuplet hyperons, which are to be measured soon. In our chiral constituent quark model, exchange currents dominate the E2 transition amplitude, while they largely cancel for the M1 transition amplitude. Strangeness suppression of the radiative hyperon decays is weakened by exchange currents. The SU(F)_3 flavor symmetry breaking for the negatively charged hyperons is strong.
Chiral effective field theory (ChEFT) is a modern framework to analyze the properties of few-nucleon systems at low energies. It is based on the most general effective Lagrangian for pions and nucleons consistent with the chiral symmetry of QCD. For energies below the pion-production threshold it is possible to eliminate the pionic degrees of freedom and derive nuclear potentials and nuclear current operators solely in terms of the nucleonic degrees of freedom. This is very important because, despite a lot of experience gained in the past, the consistency between two-nucleon forces, many-nucleon forces and the corresponding current operators has not been achieved yet. In this presentation we consider the recently derived long-range two-pion exchange (TPE) contributions to the nuclear current operator which appear at next-to leading order of the chiral expansion. These operators do not contain any free parameters. We study their role in the deuteron photodisintegration reaction and compare our predictions with experimental data. The bound and scattering states are calculated using five different chiral N2LO nucleon-nucleon (NN) potentials which allows to estimate the theoretical uncertainty at a given order in the chiral expansion. For some observables the results are very close to the reference predictions based on the AV18 NN potential and the current operator (partly) consistent with this force.
We consider two basic nuclear reactions: Radiative capture of neutrons by protons, $n+pto gamma+~d$ and its time-reversed counterpart, photodisintegration of the deuteron, $gamma +dto n+p$. In both of these cases we assume that the incoming beam of neutrons or photons is twisted by having an azimuthal phase dependence, {it i.e.}, it carries an additional angular momentum along its direction of propagation. Taking a low-energy limit of these reactions, we derive relations between corresponding transition amplitudes and cross sections with plane-wave beams and twisted beams. Implications for experiments with twisted cold neutrons and photon beams are discussed.
We extend our approach to incorporate the proton-proton (pp) Coulomb force into the three-nucleon (3N) momentum-space Faddeev calculations of elastic proton-deuteron (pd) scattering and breakup to the case when also a three-nucleon force (3NF) is acting. In addition we formulate that approach in the application to electron- and gamma-induced reactions on 3He. The main new ingredient is a 3-dimensional screened pp Coulomb t-matrix obtained by a numerical solution of a 3-dimensional Lippmann-Schwinger equation (LSE). The resulting equations have the same structure as the Faddeev equations which describe pd scattering without 3NF acting. That shows the practical feasibility of both presented formulations.