Models, measurements, and effective field theory: proton capture on Beryllium-7 at next-to-leading order

We employ an effective field theory (EFT) that exploits the separation of scales in the p-wave halo nucleus $^8\mathrm{B}$ to describe the process $^7\mathrm{Be}(p,\gamma)^8\mathrm{B}$ up to a center-of-mass energy of 500 keV. The calculation, for which we develop the lagrangian and power counting, is carried out up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the EFT expansion. The power counting we adopt implies that Coulomb interactions must be included to all orders in $\alpha_{\rm em}$. We do this via EFT Feynman diagrams computed in time-ordered perturbation theory, and so recover existing quantum-mechanical technology such as the two-potential formalism for the treatment of the Coulomb-nuclear interference. Meanwhile the strong interactions and the E1 operator are dealt with via EFT expansions in powers of momenta, with a breakdown scale set by the size of the ${}^7$Be core, $\Lambda \approx 70$ MeV. Up to NLO the relevant physics in the different channels that enter the radiative capture reaction is encoded in ten different EFT couplings. The result is a model-independent parametrization for the reaction amplitude in the energy regime of interest. To show the connection to previous results we fix the EFT couplings using results from a number of potential model and microscopic calculations in the literature. Each of these models corresponds to a particular point in the space of EFTs. The EFT structure therefore provides a very general way to quantify the model uncertainty in calculations of $^7\mathrm{Be}(p,\gamma)^8\mathrm{B}$. We also demonstrate that the only N$^2$LO corrections in $^7\mathrm{Be}(p,\gamma)^8\mathrm{B}$ come from an inelasticity that is practically of N$^3$LO size in the energy range of interest, and so the truncation error in our calculation is effectively N$^3$LO. We also discuss the relation of our extrapolated $S(0)$ to the previous standard evaluation.Comment: 68 pages, 10 figures, and 4 table

Halo effective field theory constrains the solar Beryllium-7 + proton -> Boron-8 + photon rate

We report an improved low-energy extrapolation of the cross section for the process Beryllium-7+proton -> Boron-8+photon, which determines the Boron-8 neutrino flux from the Sun. Our extrapolant is derived from Halo Effective Field Theory (EFT) at next-to-leading order. We apply Bayesian methods to determine the EFT parameters and the low-energy S-factor, using measured cross sections and scattering lengths as inputs. Asymptotic normalization coefficients of Boron-8 are tightly constrained by existing radiative capture data, and contributions to the cross section beyond external direct capture are detected in the data at E < 0.5 MeV. Most importantly, the S-factor at zero energy is constrained to be S(0)= 21.3 + - 0.7 eV b, which is an uncertainty smaller by a factor of two than previously recommended. That recommendation was based on the full range for S(0) obtained among a discrete set of models judged to be reasonable. In contrast, Halo EFT subsumes all models into a controlled low-energy approximant, where they are characterized by nine parameters at next-to-leading order. These are fit to data, and marginalized over via Monte Carlo integration to produce the improved prediction for S(E).Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, and 1 supplemental materia