Dominant 2πγ2\pi\gamma-exchange nucleon-nucleon interaction: Spin-spin and tensor potentials

We calculate at two-loop order in chiral perturbation theory the electromagnetic corrections to the two-pion exchange nucleon-nucleon interaction that is generated by the isovector spin-flip $\pi\pi NN$ contact-vertex proportional to the large low-energy constant $c_4\simeq 3.4$GeV$^{-1}$. We find that the respective $2\pi\gamma$-exchange potentials contain sizeable isospin-breaking components which reach up to -4% of corresponding isovector $2\pi$-exchange potentials. The typical values of these novel charge-independence breaking spin-spin and tensor potentials are $-0.11$MeV and $0.09$MeV, at a nucleon distance of $r=m_\pi^{-1}=1.4$fm. The charge-symmetry breaking spin-spin and tensor potentials come out a factor of 2.4 smaller. Our analytical results for these presumably dominant isospin-violating spin-spin and tensor NN-forces are in a form such that they can be easily implemented into phase-shift analyses and few-body calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, to be published in Physical Review C: Brief report

Electromagnetic corrections to the dominant two-pion exchange nucleon-nucleon potential

We calculate at two-loop order in chiral perturbation theory the electromagnetic corrections to the dominant two-pion exchange nucleon-nucleon interaction that is generated by the isoscalar $\pi N$ contact-vertex proportional to the large low-energy constant $c_3$. We find that the respective $2\pi\gamma$-exchange potential contains sizeable isospin-breaking components which amount to about -1% of the strongly attractive isoscalar central $2\pi$-exchange potential. The typical value of these novel charge-independence and charge-symmetry breaking central potentials is $0.3$MeV at a nucleon distance of $r= m_\pi^{-1} = 1.4$fm. Our analytical result for this presumably dominant $2\pi\gamma$-exchange interaction is in a form such that it can be easily implemented into phase-shift analyses and few-body calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Physical Review C (2006): Brief Report

Nuclear energy density functional from chiral pion-nucleon dynamics: Isovector terms

We extend a recent calculation of the nuclear energy density functional in the framework of chiral perturbation theory by computing the isovector surface and spin-orbit terms: (\vec \nabla \rho_p- \vec \nabla \rho_n)^2 G_d(\rho)+ (\vec \nabla \rho_p- \vec \nabla \rho_n)\cdot(\vec J_p-\vec J_n) G_{so(\rho)+(\vec J_p-\vec J_n)^2 G_J(\rho) pertaining to different proton and neutron densities. Our calculation treats systematically the effects from $1\pi$-exchange, iterated $1\pi$-exchange, and irreducible $2\pi$-exchange with intermediate $\Delta$-isobar excitations, including Pauli-blocking corrections up to three-loop order. Using an improved density-matrix expansion, we obtain results for the strength functions $G_d(\rho)$, $G_{so}(\rho)$ and $G_J(\rho)$ which are considerably larger than those of phenomenological Skyrme forces. These (parameter-free) predictions for the strength of the isovector surface and spin-orbit terms as provided by the long-range pion-exchange dynamics in the nuclear medium should be examined in nuclear structure calculations at large neutron excess.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Chiral 3π\pi-exchange NN-potentials: Results for dominant next-to-leading order contributions

We calculate in (two-loop) chiral perturbation theory the local NN-potentials generated by the three-pion exchange diagrams with one insertion from the second order chiral effective pion-nucleon Lagrangian proportional to the low-energy constants $c_{1,2,3,4}$. The resulting isoscalar central potential vanishes identically. In most cases these $3\pi$-exchange potentials are larger than the ones generated by the diagrams involving only leading order vertices due to the large values of $c_{3,4}$ (which mainly represent virtual $\Delta$-excitation). A similar feature has been observed for the chiral $2\pi$-exchange. We also give suitable (double-integral) representations for the spin-spin and tensor potentials generated by the leading-order diagrams proportional to $g_A^6$ involving four nucleon propagators. In these cases the Cutkosky rule cannot be used to calculate the spectral-functions in the infinite nucleon mass limit since the corresponding mass-spectra start with a non-vanishing value at the $3\pi$-threshold. Altogether, one finds that chiral $3\pi$-exchange leads to small corrections in the region $r\geq 1.4$ fm where $1\pi$- and chiral $2\pi$-exchange alone provide a very good strong NN-force as shown in a recent analysis of the low-energy pp-scattering data-base.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, to be published in The Physical Review

Nuclear energy density functional from chiral pion-nucleon dynamics: Isovector spin-orbit terms

We extend a recent calculation of the nuclear energy density functional in the systematic framework of chiral perturbation theory by computing the isovector spin-orbit terms: $(\vec \nabla \rho_p- \vec \nabla \rho_n)\cdot(\vec J_p-\vec J_n) G_{so}(k_f)+ (\vec J_p-\vec J_n)^2 G_J(k_f)$. The calculation includes the one-pion exchange Fock diagram and the iterated one-pion exchange Hartree and Fock diagrams. From these few leading order contributions in the small momentum expansion one obtains already a good equation of state of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter. We find that the parameterfree results for the (density-dependent) strength functions $G_{so}(k_f)$ and $G_J(k_f)$ agree fairly well with that of phenomenological Skyrme forces for densities $\rho > \rho_0/10$. At very low densities a strong variation of the strength functions $G_{so}(k_f)$ and $G_J(k_f)$ with density sets in. This has to do with chiral singularities $m_\pi^{-1}$ and the presence of two competing small mass scales $k_f$ and $m_\pi$. The novel density dependencies of $G_{so}(k_f)$ and $G_J(k_f)$ as predicted by our parameterfree (leading order) calculation should be examined in nuclear structure calculations.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure, published in: Physical Review C68, 014323 (2003

Radiative corrections to neutral pion-pair production

We calculate the one-photon loop radiative corrections to the neutral pion-pair photoproduction process $\pi^-\gamma \to \pi^-\pi^0\pi^0$. At leading order this reaction is governed by the chiral pion-pion interaction. Since the chiral $\pi^+\pi^-\to\pi^0\pi^0$ contact-vertex depends only on the final-state invariant-mass it factors out of all photon-loop diagrams. We give analytical expressions for the multiplicative correction factor $R\sim \alpha/2\pi$ arising from eight classes of contributing one-photon loop diagrams. An electromagnetic counterterm has to be included in order to cancel the ultraviolet divergences generated by the photon-loops. Infrared finiteness of the virtual radiative corrections is achieved (in the standard way) by including soft photon radiation below an energy cut-off $\lambda$. The radiative corrections to the total cross section vary between $+2\%$ and $-2\%$ for center-of-mass energies from threshold up to $7m_\pi$. The finite part of the electromagnetic counterterm gives an additional constant contribution of about $1\%$, however with a large uncertainty.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Scales in nuclear matter: Chiral dynamics with pion nucleon form factors

A systematic calculation of nuclear matter is performed which includes the long-range correlations between nucleons arising from one- and two-pion exchange. Three-body effects from $2\pi$-exchange with excitations of virtual $\Delta(1232)$-isobars are also taken into account in our diagrammatic calculation of the energy per particle $\bar E(k_f)$. In order to eliminate possible high-momentum components from the interactions we introduce at each pion-baryon vertex a form factor of monopole type. The empirical nuclear matter saturation point, $\rho_0 \simeq 0.16$fm$^{-3}$, $\bar E_0\simeq -16$MeV, is well reproduced with a monopole mass of $\Lambda \simeq 4\pi f_\pi \simeq 1.16$GeV. As in the recent approach based on the universal low-momentum $NN$-potential $V_{\rm low-k}$, the inclusion of three-body effects is crucial in order to achieve saturation of nuclear matter. We demonstrate that the dependence of the pion-exchange contributions to $\bar E(k_f)$ on the ''resolution'' scale $\Lambda$ can be compensated over a wide range of $\Lambda$ by counterterms with two ''running'' contact-couplings. As a further application we study the in-medium chiral condensate $(\rho)$ beyond the linear density approximation. For $\rho \leq 1.5 \rho_0$ we find small corrections from the derivative $d \bar E(k_f)/d m_\pi$, which are stable against variations of the monopole regulator mass $\Lambda$.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

General Relativistic Description of the Observed Galaxy Power Spectrum: Do We Understand What We Measure?

We extend the general relativistic description of galaxy clustering developed in Yoo, Fitzpatrick, and Zaldarriaga (2009). For the first time we provide a fully general relativistic description of the observed matter power spectrum and the observed galaxy power spectrum with the linear bias ansatz. It is significantly different from the standard Newtonian description on large scales and especially its measurements on large scales can be misinterpreted as the detection of the primordial non-Gaussianity even in the absence thereof. The key difference in the observed galaxy power spectrum arises from the real-space matter fluctuation defined as the matter fluctuation at the hypersurface of the observed redshift. As opposed to the standard description, the shape of the observed galaxy power spectrum evolves in redshift, providing additional cosmological information. While the systematic errors in the standard Newtonian description are negligible in the current galaxy surveys at low redshift, correct general relativistic description is essential for understanding the galaxy power spectrum measurements on large scales in future surveys with redshift depth z>3. We discuss ways to improve the detection significance in the current galaxy surveys and comment on applications of our general relativistic formalism in future surveys.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review