No Arabic abstract
The near-threshold n p -> d pi0 cross section is calculated in chiral perturbation theory to next-to-leading order in the expansion parameter sqrt{M m_pi}/Lambda_chi. At this order irreducible pion loops contribute to the relevant pion-production operator. While their contribution to this operator is finite, considering initial-and final-state distortions produces a linear divergence in its matrix elements. We renormalize this divergence by introducing a counterterm, whose value we choose in order to reproduce the threshold n p -> d pi0 cross section measured at TRIUMF. The energy-dependence of this cross section is then predicted in chiral perturbation theory, being determined by the production of p-wave pions, and also by energy dependence in the amplitude for the production of s-wave pions. With an appropriate choice of the counterterm, the chiral prediction for this energy dependence converges well.
The neutron-neutron scattering length a_nn provides a sensitive probe of charge-symmetry breaking in the strong interaction. Here we summarize our recent efforts to use chiral perturbation theory in order to systematically relate a_nn to the shape of the neutron spectrum in the reaction pi- d --> n n gamma. In particular we show how the chiral symmetry of QCD relates this process to low-energy electroweak reactions such as p p --> d e+ nu_e. This allows us to reduce the uncertainty in the extracted a_nn (mainly due to short-distance physics in the two-nucleon system) by a factor of more than three, to <0.05 fm. We also report first results on the impact that two-nucleon mechanisms of chiral order P^4 have on the pi- d --> n n gamma neutron spectrum.
The reaction pi- d -> n n gamma is calculated in chiral perturbation theory so as to facilitate an extraction of the neutron-neutron scattering length (a_nn). We include all diagrams up to O(Q^3). This includes loop effects in the elementary pi- p -> gamma n amplitude and two-body diagrams, both of which were ignored in previous calculations. We find that the chiral expansion for the ratio of the quasi-free (QF) to final-state-interaction (FSI) peaks in the final-state neutron spectrum converges well. Our third-order calculation of the full spectrum is already accurate to better than 5%. Extracting a_nn from the shape of the entire pi- d -> n n gamma spectrum using our calculation in its present stage would thus be possible at the +-0.8 fm level. A fit to the FSI peak only would allow an extraction of a_nn with a theoretical uncertainty of +-0.2 fm. The effects that contribute to these error bars are investigated. The uncertainty in the $nn$ rescattering wave function dominates. This suggests that the quoted theoretical error of +-0.3 fm for the most recent pi- d -> n n gamma measurement may be optimistic. The possibility of constraining the nn rescattering wave function used in our calculation more tightly--and thus reducing the error--is briefly discussed.
We consider the reaction g+d -> pi+d in a wide energy range around and above the eta-meson photoproduction threshold at backward CM angles of the outgoing pion. Our theoretical analysis is essentially motivated by the recent measurements of the CLAS Collaboration at Jefferson Lab, where this kinematical region of the reaction has been thoroughly studied for the first time and a cusps in the energy dependence of the differential cross section in the region of Eg = 600-800 MeV has been observed. Our preliminary and qualitative analysis, based on single- and double-scattering diagrams, shows that the observed structure can be explained by the contribution of the double-scattering diagram with intermediate production of the eta meson. The effect, to a considerable extent, is formed due to the contribution of N(1535) resonance to the amplitudes of subprocesses on the nucleons.
The appearance of some papers dealing with the $K^- d to pi Sigma n$ reaction, with some discrepancies in the results and a proposal to measure the reaction at forward $n$ angles at J-PARC justifies to retake the theoretical study with high precision to make accurate predictions for the experiment and extract from there the relevant physical information. We do this in the present paper showing results using the Watson approach and the truncated Faddeev approach. We argue that the Watson approach is more suitable to study the reaction because it takes into account the potential energy of the nucleons forming the deuteron, which is neglected in the truncated Faddeev approach. Predictions for the experiment are done as well as spectra with the integrated neutron angle.
The N*(1440) -> N pi pi decay is studied by making use of the chiral reduction formula. This formula suggests a scalar-isoscalar pion-baryon contact interaction which is absent in the recent study of Hern{a}ndez et al. The contact interaction is introduced into their model, and is found to be necessary for the simultaneous description of g_{RN pi pi} and the pi-pi and pi-N invariant mass distributions.