We consider a symmetry-preserving approach to the nucleon-nucleon scattering problem in the framework of the higher-derivative formulation of baryon chiral perturbation theory. Within this framework the leading-order amplitude is calculated by solving renormalizable equations and corrections are taken into account perturbatively.
We report on the recent studies of leading order baryon-baryon interactions in covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. In the strangeness $S=0$ sector, one can achieve a rather good description of the Nijmegen $np$ phase shifts with angular momenta $Jleq 1$, particularly the $^1S_0$ and $^3P_0$ partial waves, comparable with the next-to-leading order (NLO) heavy baryon approach. In the strangeness $S=-1$ hyperon-nucleon sector, the best fit of the 36 scattering data is similar to the sophisticated phenomenological models and the NLO heavy baryon approach.
We calculate the lambda-nucleon scattering phase shifts and mixing angles by applying time-ordered perturbation theory to the manifestly Lorentz-invariant formulation of SU(3) baryon chiral perturbation theory. Scattering amplitudes are obtained by solving the corresponding coupled-channel integral equations that have a milder ultraviolet behavior compared to their non-relativistic analogs. This allows us to consider the removed cutoff limit in our leading-order calculations also in the $^3P_0$ and $^3P_1$ partial waves. We find that, in the framework we are using, at least some part of the higher-order contributions to the baryon-baryon potential in these channels needs to be treated nonperturbatively and demonstrate how this can be achieved in a way consistent with quantum field theoretical renormalization for the leading contact interactions. We compare our results with the ones of the non-relativistic approach and lattice QCD phase shifts obtained for non-physical pion masses.
Employing the covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory, we calculate the leading and next-to-leading order two-pion exchange (TPE) contributions to $NN$ interaction up to order $O(p^3)$. We compare the so-obtained $NN$ phase shifts with $2leq Lleq 6$ and mixing angles with $2leq Jleq6$ with those obtained in the nonrelativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory, which allows us to check the relativistic corrections to the medium-range part of $NN$ interactions. We show that the contributions of relativistic TPE are more moderate than those of the nonrelativistic TPE. The relativistic corrections play an important role in F-waves especially the $^3text{F}_2$ partial wave. Moreover, the relativistic results seem to converge faster than the nonrelativistic results in almost all the partial waves studied in the present work, consistent with the studies performed in the one-baryon sector.
In this talk, we report on two recent studies of relativistic nucleon-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon interactions in covariant chiral perturbation theory, where they are constructed up to leading order. The relevant unknown low energy constants are fixed by fitting to the nucleon-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon scattering data. It is shown that these interactions can describe the scattering data with a quality similar to their next-to-leading order non-relativistic counterparts. These studies show that it is technically feasible to construct relativist baryon-baryon interactions, and in addition, after further refinements, these interactions may provide important inputs to {it ab initio} relativistic nuclear structure and reaction studies and help improve our understanding of low energy strong interactions.
The spin-independent part of the virtual Compton scattering (VCS) amplitude from the nucleon is calculated within the framework of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). The calculation is performed to third order in external momenta according to chiral power counting. The relation of the tree-level amplitudes to what is expected from the low-energy theorem is discussed. We relate the one-loop results to the structure coefficients of a low-energy expansion for the model-dependent part of the VCS amplitude recently defined by Fearing and Scherer. Finally we discuss the connection of our results with the generalized polarizabilities of the nucleon defined by Guichon, Liu and Thomas.