Chiral effective field theory for nuclear matter

We report on the recent developments of a new effective field theory for nuclear matter [1,2,3]. We present first the nuclear matter chiral power counting that takes into account both short-- and long--range inter-nucleon interactions. It also identifies non-perturbative strings of diagrams, related to the iteration of nucleon-nucleon interactions, which have to be re-summed. The methods of unitary chiral perturbation theory has been shown to be a useful tool in order to perform those resummations. Results up to next-to-leading order for the ground state energy per particle of nuclear matter, the in-medium chiral quark condensate and pion self-energy are discussed.Comment: Plenary talk at Chiral10 WORKSHOP, 21-24 Jun 2010, Valencia, Spai

Skyrme models and nuclear matter equation of state

We investigate the role of pressure in a class of generalised Skyrme models. We introduce pressure as the trace of the spatial part of the energy-momentum tensor and show that it obeys the usual thermodynamical relation. Then, we compute analytically the mean-field equation of state in the high and medium pressure regimes by applying topological bounds on compact domains. The equation of state is further investigated numerically for the charge one skyrmions. We identify which term in a generalised Skyrme model is responsible for which part in the equation of state. Further, we compare our findings with the corresponding results in the Walecka model

Alternative experimental evidence for chiral restoration in excited baryons

Given existing empirical spectral patterns of excited hadrons it has been suggested that chiral symmetry is approximately restored in excited hadrons at zero temperature/density (effective symmetry restoration). If correct, this implies that mass generation mechanisms and physics in excited hadrons is very different as compared to the lowest states. One needs an alternative and independent experimental information to confirm this conjecture. Using very general chiral symmetry arguments it is shown that strict chiral restoration in a given excited nucleon forbids its decay into the N \pi channel. Hence those excited nucleons which are assumed from the spectroscopic patterns to be in approximate chiral multiplets must only "weakly" decay into the N \pi channel, (f_{N^*N\pi}/f_{NN\pi})^2 << 1. However, those baryons which have no chiral partner must decay strongly with a decay constant comparable with f_{NN\pi}. Decay constants can be extracted from the existing decay widths and branching ratios. It turnes out that for all those well established excited nucleons which can be classified into chiral doublets N_+(1440) - N_-(1535), N_+(1710) - N_-(1650), N_+(1720) - N_-(1700), N_+(1680) - N_-(1675), N_+(2220) - N_-(2250), N_+(?) - N_-(2190), N_+(?) - N_-(2600), the ratio is (f_{N^*N\pi}/f_{NN\pi})^2 ~ 0.1 or much smaller for the high-spin states. In contrast, the only well established excited nucleon for which the chiral partner cannot be identified from the spectroscopic data, N(1520), has a decay constant into the N\pi channel that is comparable with f_{NN\pi}. This gives an independent experimental verification of the chiral symmetry restoration scenario.Comment: 4 pp. A new footnote with an alternative proof of impossibility of parity doublet decay into pi + N is added. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Nuclear Forces and Few-Nucleon Studies Based on Chiral Perturbation Theory

After a brief review on the status of few--nucleon studies based on conventional nuclear forces, we sketch the concepts of the effective field theory approach constrained by chiral symmetry and its application to nuclear forces. Then first results for few--nucleon observables are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, presented by W. Gloeckle at the International Symposium on "A New Era of Nuclear Structure Physics", Kurokawa Village (Niigata Pref.), Japan, Nov. 19-22, 200

Few-Nucleon Systems with Two-Nucleon Forces from Chiral Effective Field Theory

Nucleon-nucleon (NN) forces from chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) are applied to systems with two, three and four nucleons. At NNLO, we consider two versions of the chiral potential which differ in the strength of the two-pion-exchange (TPE) but describe two nucleon observables equally well. The NNLO potential leads to unphysical deeply bound states in the low partial waves and effects of the 3N forces, which appear first at this order, are expected to be large. We provide arguments for a reduction of the TPE potential and introduce the NNLO* version of the NN forces. We calculate nd scattering observables as well as various properties of 3H and 4He with the NNLO* potential and find good agreement with the data and with predictions based upon the standard high-precision potentials. We find an improved description of the 3H and 4He binding energies.Comment: 34 pages, 25 figure

Vector-axialvector mixing from a chiral effective field theory at finite temperature

We study the vector-axialvector mixing in a hot medium and its evolution toward the chiral phase transition using different symmetry restoration scenarios based on the generalized hidden local symmetry framework. We show that the presence of the $a_1$ meson reduces the vector spectral function around $\rho$ meson mass and enhances it around $a_1$ meson mass. The coupling strength of $a_1$ to $\rho$ and $\pi$ vanishes at the critical temperature due to the degenerate $\rho$-$a_1$ masses. This feature holds rigorously in the chiral limit and still stays intact to good approximation for the physical pion mass.Comment: v2:11 pages, 6 figures, reorganized and expanded the text, new plots and references added, main result and conclusions unchange