The Soft R\'egime and \beta Function of NRQCD

Progress towards a complete velocity power counting in non-relativistic effective field theories, especially NRQCD, is motivated and summarised.Comment: 6 pages LaTeX2e, uses feynmp to generate 5 drawings in 1 figure and 1 table. Necessary metapost-files included. Talk presented at the ``Euroconference QCD '98'' in Montpellier, France, 2nd -- 8th July 1998 (to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.)), and at the conference ``Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum III'' at TJNL, Newport News, USA, 8th -- 12th June 1998 (to be published in the proceedings

Nucleon Polarisabilities from Compton Scattering off the One- and Few-Nucleon System

These proceedings sketch how combining recent theoretical advances with data from the new generation of high-precision Compton scattering experiments on both the proton and few-nucleon systems offers fresh, detailed insight into the Physics of the nucleon polarisabilities. A multipole-analysis is presented to simplify their interpretation. Predictions from Chiral Effective Field Theory with special emphasis on the spin-polarisabilities can serve as guideline for doubly-polarised experiments below 300 MeV. The strong energy-dependence of the scalar magnetic dipole-polarisability $\beta_{M1}$ turns out to be crucial to understand the proton and deuteron data. Finally, a high-accuracy determination of the proton and neutron polarisabilities shows that they are identical within error-bars. For details and a better list of references, consult the given references.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX2e with 7 figures in 8 .eps files, using graphicx. Invited seminar given at the 26th Course of the International School of Nuclear Physics: Lepton Scattering and the Structure of Hadrons and Nuclei, Erice (Italy), 16th - 24th September 2004. To be published in Prog. Nucl. Part. Phys. 54, No. 2 as part of the proceeding

Asymmetric regularization of the ground and excited state of the helium-4 nucleus

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.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Compton scattering from the proton in an effective field theory with explicit Delta degrees of freedom

We analyse the proton Compton-scattering differential cross section for photon energies up to 325 MeV using Chiral Effective Field Theory and extract new values for the electric and magnetic polarisabilities of the proton. Our EFT treatment builds in the key physics in two different regimes: photon energies around the pion mass ("low energy") and the higher energies where the Delta(1232) resonance plays a key role. The Compton amplitude is complete at N4L0, O(e^2 delta^4), in the low-energy region, and at NLO, O(e^2 delta^0), in the resonance region. Throughout, the Delta-pole graphs are dressed with pi-N loops and gamma-N-Delta vertex corrections. A statistically consistent database of proton Compton experiments is used to constrain the free parameters in our amplitude: the M1 gamma-N-Delta transition strength b_1 (which is fixed in the resonance region) and the polarisabilities alpha and beta (which are fixed from data below 170 MeV). In order to obtain a reasonable fit we find it necessary to add the spin polarisability gammaM1 as a free parameter, even though it is, strictly speaking, predicted in chiral EFT at the order to which we work. We show that the fit is consistent with the Baldin sum rule, and then use that sum rule to constrain alpha+beta. In this way we obtain alpha=[10.65+/-0.35(stat})+/-0.2(Baldin)+/-0.3(theory)]10^{-4} fm^3, and beta =[3.15-/+0.35(stat)-/+0.2(Baldin)-/+0.3(theory)]10^{-4} fm^3, with chi^2 = 113.2 for 135 degrees of freedom. A detailed rationale for the theoretical uncertainties assigned to this result is provided.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figures Version 2 is shortened for publication; version 1 is more self-contained. Results section unchange

Nuclear Physics Around the Unitarity Limit

We argue that many features of the structure of nuclei emerge from a strictly perturbative expansion around the unitarity limit, where the two-nucleon S waves have bound states at zero energy. In this limit, the gross features of states in the nuclear chart are correlated to only one dimensionful parameter, which is related to the breaking of scale invariance to a discrete scaling symmetry and set by the triton binding energy. Observables are moved to their physical values by small, perturbative corrections, much like in descriptions of the fine structure of atomic spectra. We provide evidence in favor of the conjecture that light, and possibly heavier, nuclei are bound weakly enough to be insensitive to the details of the interactions but strongly enough to be insensitive to the exact size of the two-nucleon system.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, published version, rewritten for clarit

Effective Theory of 3H and 3He

We present a new perturbative expansion for pionless effective field theory with Coulomb interactions in which at leading order the spin-singlet nucleon-nucleon channels are taken in the unitarity limit. Presenting results up to next-to-leading order for the Phillips line and the neutron-deuteron doublet-channel phase shift, we find that a perturbative expansion in the inverse 1S0 scattering lengths converges rapidly. Using a new systematic treatment of the proton-proton sector that isolates the divergence due to one-photon exchange, we renormalize the corresponding contribution to the 3H-3He binding energy splitting and demonstrate that the Coulomb force in pionless EFT is a completely perturbative effect in the trinucleon bound-state regime. In our new expansion, the leading order is exactly isospin-symmetric. At next-to-leading order, we include isospin breaking via the Coulomb force and two-body scattering lengths, and find for the energy splitting (E_B(3He)-E_B(3H))^NLO = (-0.86 +/- 0.17) MeV.Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures, published versio

Strong and radiative decays of the Ds0∗(2317)D_{s0}^*(2317) and Ds1(2460)D_{s1}(2460)

Since their discovery in 2003, the open charm states $D_{s0}^*(2317)$ and $D_{s1}(2460)$ provide a challenge to the conventional quark model. In recent years, theoretical evidence has been accumulated for both states in favor of a predominantly $DK$ and $D^*K$ molecular nature, respectively. However, a direct experimental proof of this hypothesis still needs to be found. Since radiative decays are generally believed to be sensitive to the inner structure of the decaying particles, we study in this work the radiative and strong decays of both the $D_{s0}^*(2317)$ and $D_{s1}(2460)$, as well as of their counterparts in the bottom sector. While the strong decays are indeed strongly enhanced for molecular states, the radiative decays are of similar order of magnitude in different pictures. Thus, the experimental observable that allows one to conclusively quantify the molecular components of the $D_{s0}^*(2317)$ and $D_{s1}(2460)$ is the hadronic width, and not the radiative one, in contradistinction to common belief. We also find that radiative decays of the sibling states in the bottom sector are significantly more frequent than the hadronic ones. Based on this, we identify their most promising discovery channels

Pion-less Effective Field Theory on Low-Energy Deuteron Electro-Disintegration

In view of its relation to Big-Bang Nucleo-Synthesis and a reported discrepancy between nuclear models and data taken at S-DALINAC, electro-induced deuteron break-up 2H(e,e' p)n is studied at momentum transfer q<100MeV and close to threshold in the low-energy nuclear Effective Field Theory without dynamical pions. The result at N2LO for electric dipole currents and at NLO for magnetic ones converges order-by-order better than quantitatively predicted and contains no free parameter. It is at this order determined by simple, well-known observables. Decomposing the doubly differential cross-section into the longitudinal-plus-transverse (L+T), transverse-transverse (TT) and longitudinal-transverse interference (LT) terms, we find excellent agreement with a potential-model calculation by Arenh"ovel et al using the Bonn potential. Theory and data also agree well on \sigma_{L+T}. There is however no space on the theory-side for the discrepancy of up to 30%, 3-\sigma between theory and experiment in \sigma_{LT}. From universality, we conclude that no theoretical approach with the correct deuteron asymptotic wave-function can explain the data. Un-determined short-distance contributions that could affect \sigma_{LT} enter only at high orders, i.e. at the few-percent level. We notice some issues with the kinematics and normalisation of the data reported.Comment: 30 pages LaTeX2e, including 10 figures as 34 .eps files embedded with includegraphicx. Increased figure sizes; contents identical to version approved for publication in Phys Rev C -- spelling and grammatical difference

A nucleon in a tiny box

We use Chiral Perturbation Theory to compute the nucleon mass-shift due to finite volume and temperature effects. Our results are valid up to next-to-leading order in the "\eps-regime" (mL ~ m\beta << 1) as well as in the "p-regime" (mL ~ m\beta >> 1). Based on the two leading orders, we discuss the convergence of the expansion as a function of the lattice size and quark masses. This result can be used to extrapolate lattice results obtained from lattice sizes smaller than the pion cloud, avoiding the numerical simulation of physics under theoretical control. An extraction of the low-energy coefficient c_3 of the chiral Lagrangean from lattice simulations at small volumes and a ``magic'' ratio \beta=1.22262 L might be possible.Comment: 7 figures, numerical examples and discussion changed. Minor misprints corrected. Version accepted by Phys Rev