We find the threshold structure of the two- and three-nucleon systems, with the deuteron and 3H/3He as the only bound nuclei, sufficient to predict a pair of four-nucleon states: a deeply bound state which is identified with the helium-4 ground state, and a shallow, unstable state at an energy 0.38(25) MeV above the triton-proton threshold which is consistent with data on the first excited state of helium-4. The analysis employs the framework of Pionless EFT at leading order with a generalized regulator prescription which probes renormalization-group invariance of the two states with respect to higher-order perturbations including asymmetrical disturbances of the short-distance structure of the interaction. In addition to this invariance of the bound-state spectrum and the diagonal triton-proton 1S0 phase shifts in the helium-4 channel with respect to the short-distance structure of the nuclear interaction, our multi-channel calculations with a resonating-group method demonstrate the increasing sensitivity of nuclei to the neutron-proton P-wave interaction. We show that two-nucleon phase shifts, the triton channel, and three-nucleon negative-parity channels are less sensitive with respect to enhanced two-nucleon P-wave attraction than the four-nucleon triton-proton 1S0 phase shifts.
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