New approach to NN with perturbative pions

The current status of effective field theory (EFT) descriptions of nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions is briefly reviewed, and a new formulation of EFT which treats pion interactions perturbatively is presented. This approach differs from the Kaplan-Savage-Wise (KSW) expansion in that the singular short distance part of the pion tensor interaction is summed to all orders.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Talk given at 6th International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics, Bern, Switzerland, 6-10 Jul 200

Nuclear forces on the lattice

Recent studies by the NPLQCD collaboration of hadronic interactions using lattice QCD are reviewed, with an emphasis on a recent calculation of meson-baryon scattering lengths. Ongoing high-statistics calculations of baryon interactions are also reviewed. In particular, new insights into the signal/noise problems that plague correlation functions involving baryons are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, Talk given at 6th International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics, Bern, Switzerland, 6-10 Jul 200

Efimov physics in a finite volume

Three bosons with large scattering length show universal properties that do not depend on the details of the interaction at short distances. In the three-boson system, these properties include a geometric spectrum of shallow three-body states called "Efimov states" and log-periodic dependence of scattering observables on the scattering length. We investigate the modification of the Efimov states in a finite cubic box and calculate the dependence of their energies on the box size using effective field theory. We explicitly verify the renormalization of the effective field theory in the finite volume.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, sign error corrected, numerical results changed, final versio

The Lambda_Q-Lambda_Q Potential

Lattice QCD simulations of the potential between two baryons, each containing a heavy quark and two light quarks, such as the Lambda_Q-Lambda_Q potential, will provide insight into the nucleon-nucleon interaction. As one-pion exchange does not contribute to the Lambda_Q-Lambda_Q potential, the long-distance behavior is dominated by physics that contributes to the intermediate-range attraction between two nucleons. We compute the leading long-distance contributions to the Lambda_Q-Lambda_Q potential in QCD and in partially-quenched QCD in the low-energy effective field theory.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX, 3 eps figs, 3 ps fig

Restless pions: orbifold boundary conditions and noise suppression in lattice QCD

The study of one or more baryons in lattice QCD is severely hindered by the exponential decay in time of the signal-to-noise ratio. The rate at which the signal-to-noise decreases is a function of the the pion mass. More precisely, it depends on the minimum allowed pion energy in the box, which, for periodic boundary conditions, is equal to its mass. We propose a set of boundary conditions, given by a "parity orbifold'' construction, which eliminates the zero momentum pion modes, raising the minimum pion energy without altering the QCD ground state, and thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio of (multi)-baryon correlation functions at long Euclidean times. We discuss variations of these "restless pions" boundary conditions and focus on their impact on the study of nuclear forces.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Exploring Baryon Chiral Multiplets

The full QCD chiral symmetry algebra has predictive consequences at low energies. I discuss the ground-state chiral multiplet involving the light baryons and emphasize the special role of the Roper resonance.Comment: 10 pages. Invited plenary talk at NSTAR 2002, Pittsburgh, PA, 9-12 October 200

Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering in the 1/N Expansion

The nucleon-nucleon 3S1-3D1 coupled-channel problem is solved analytically to leading order in a joint expansion in the quark masses and in 1/N. An approximate expression is derived for the 3S1 scattering length in the large-N limit, and the large-N behavior of the deuteron is discussed.Comment: 10 pages, Invited talk, The Phenomenology of Large-N_c QCD, to be published Proceedings of the Institute of Nuclear Theor

Ground state energy of the interacting Bose gas in two dimensions: an explicit construction

The isotropic scattering phase shift is calculated for non-relativistic bosons interacting at low energies via an arbitrary finite-range potential in d spacetime dimensions. Scattering on a (d-1)-dimensional torus is then considered, and the eigenvalue equation relating the energy levels on the torus to the scattering phase shift is derived. With this technology in hand, and focusing on the case of two spatial dimensions, a perturbative expansion is developed for the ground-state energy of N identical bosons which interact via an arbitrary finite-range potential in a finite area. The leading non-universal effects due to range corrections and three-body forces are included. It is then shown that the thermodynamic limit of the ground-state energy in a finite area can be taken in closed form to obtain the energy-per-particle in the low-density expansion, by explicitly summing the parts of the finite-area energy that diverge with powers of N. The leading and subleading finite-size corrections to the thermodynamic limit equation-of-state are also computed. Closed-form results --some well-known, others perhaps not-- for two-dimensional lattice sums are included in an appendix.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

To bind or not to bind: The H-dibaryon in light of chiral effective field theory

We analyse the quark mass dependence of the binding energy of the H-dibaryon in the framework of chiral effective field theory. We show that the SU(3) breaking effects induced by the differences of the pertinent two-baryon thresholds (Lambda-Lambda, Xi-N, Sigma-Sigma) have a very pronounced impact that need to be incorporated properly in future lattice QCD simulations. We also point out that if the H-dibaryon is a two-baryon bound state, its dominant component is Xi-N rather than Lambda-Lambda, which is a consequence of the approximate SU(3) flavor symmetry of the two-baryon interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures; Results updated to the new H binding energy reported by NPLQCD, conclusions remain unchanged, several references adde