Low energy analysis of pi N --> pi N

We derive a representation for the pion nucleon scattering amplitude that is valid to the fourth order of the chiral expansion. To obtain the correct analytic structure of the singularities in the low energy region, we have performed the calculation in a relativistic framework (infrared regularization). The result can be written in terms of functions of a single variable. We study the corresponding dispersion relations and discuss the problems encountered in the straightforward nonrelativistic expansion of the infrared singularities. As an application, we evaluate the corrections to the Goldberger-Treiman relation and to the low energy theorem that relates the value of the amplitude at the Cheng-Dashen point to the \sigma-term. While chiral symmetry does govern the behaviour of the amplitude in the vicinity of this point, the representation for the scattering amplitude is not accurate enough to use it for an extrapolation of the experimental data to the subthreshold region. We propose to perform this extrapolation on the basis of a set of integral equations that interrelate the lowest partial waves and are analogous to the Roy equations for \pi\pi scattering.Comment: 97 pages (LaTeX), 16 figures. Two references added, correction in table one. Published versio

Fabrication and characterization of hot- pressed tantalum carbide

Microstructure and chemistry of hot pressed powder compacts of tantalum carbid

Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory in Manifestly Lorentz Invariant Form

We show that in the presence of massive particles such as nucleons, the standard low energy expansion in powers of meson momenta and light quark masses in general only converges in part of the low energy region. The expansion of the scalar form factor $\sigma(t)$, for instance, breaks down in the vicinity of $t=4M_\pi^2$. In the language of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory, the proper behaviour in the threshold region only results if the multiple internal line insertions generated by relativistic kinematics are summed up to all orders. We propose a method that yields a coherent representation throughout the low energy region while keeping Lorentz and chiral invariance explicit at all stages. The method is illustrated with a calculation of the nucleon mass and of the scalar form factor to order $p^4$.Comment: 66 pages, 12 postscript figure

Systematic Low-Energy Effective Field Theory for Magnons and Holes in an Antiferromagnet on the Honeycomb Lattice

Based on a symmetry analysis of the microscopic Hubbard and t-J models, a systematic low-energy effective field theory is constructed for hole-doped antiferromagnets on the honeycomb lattice. In the antiferromagnetic phase, doped holes are massive due to the spontaneous breakdown of the $SU(2)_s$ symmetry, just as nucleons in QCD pick up their mass from spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. In the broken phase the effective action contains a single-derivative term, similar to the Shraiman-Siggia term in the square lattice case. Interestingly, an accidental continuous spatial rotation symmetry arises at leading order. As an application of the effective field theory we consider one-magnon exchange between two holes and the formation of two-hole bound states. As an unambiguous prediction of the effective theory, the wave function for the ground state of two holes bound by magnon exchange exhibits $f$-wave symmetry.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figure