The Solar HepHep Process

The $Hep$ process is a weak-interaction reaction, $He3 + p \to He4 + e^+ + \nu_e$, which occurs in the sun. There is renewed interest in $Hep$ owing to current experimental efforts to extract from the observed solar neutrino spectrum information on non-standard physics in the neutrino sector. $Hep$ produces highest-energy solar neutrinos, although their flux is quite modest. This implies that the $Hep$ neutrios can at some level influence the solar neutrino spectrum near its upper end. Therefore, a precise interpretation of the observed solar neutrino spectrum requires an accurate estimate of the $Hep$ rate. This is an interesting but challenging task. We describe the difficulties involved and how the recent theoretical developments in nuclear physics have enabled us to largely overcome these difficulties. A historical survey of $Hep$ calculations is followed by an overview of the latest developments. We compare the results obtained in the conventional nuclear physics approach and those obtained in a newly developed effective field theory approach. We also discuss the current status of the experiments relevant to $Hep$.Comment: Published in Ann. Rev. Nuc. Part. Sci. vol. 54, 19 (2004). AR209 macros are include

R-Matrix theory with level-dependent boundary condition parameters

I present a new formalism of the R-matrix theory where the formal parameters for the resonance energies and widths are identical to the observed values. By allowing the boundary condition parameters to vary from level to level, the freedom required to adjust the formal parameters for the pole positions to the observed values is obtained. The basis of the resulting theory becomes nonorthogonal, and I describe the procedure to construct a consistent R-matrix theory with such a nonorthogonal basis. And by adjusting the normalization of the states that form the basis, the formal parameters for the reduced decay widths also become the same as those observed, leaving no formal parameters that are different from the observed ones. A demonstration of the developed theory to the elastic 12C+p scattering data is presented.Comment: 5 pages, published versio

Effective Field Theory For Nuclei: Confronting Fundamental Questions in Astrophysics

Fundamental issues involving nuclei in the celebrated solar neutrino problem are discussed in terms of an effective field theory adapted to nuclear few-body systems, with a focus on the proton fusion process and the hep process. Our strategy in addressing these questions is to combine chiral perturbation theory -- an effective field theory of QCD -- with an accurate nuclear physics approach to arrive at a more effective effective field theory that reveals and exploits a subtle role of the chiral-symmetry scale in short-distance effects encoded in short-range nuclear correlations. Our key argument is drawn from the close analogy of the principal weak matrix element figuring in the hep process to the suppressed matrix elements in the polarized neutron-proton capture at threshold currently being measured in the laboratories.Comment: 11 pages. Invited talk given by MR at the International Conference on Few-Body Problems, Taipei, Taiwan, 6-10 March 200