122525865
Electroweak reactions on light nuclei in chiral perturbation theory
I discuss the calculation of electromagnetic and weak reactions in few‐nucleon systems using potentials and current operators derived within chiral effective theory (χET). Computations up to O(P3) relative to leading are considered. I first present results that show that at this order χET gives a good description of extant data on the deuteron’s charge and quadrupole form factors for momentum transfers |q|<0.6 GeV. These predictions will be challenged by forthcoming data from BLAST and JLab. I then review calculations pertaining to the χET expansion for weak currents, which has reached unprecedentedaccuracy. When used to anlayze data on the weak‐capture process, 3He(μ−,υμ)3H, it yields a tight constraint on the conserved vector‐current hypothesis.
119267197
One- and Two-Neutron Halos in Effective Field Theory
I discuss recent work our group has undertaken on effective-field-theory analyses of experimental data pertaining to one- and two-neutron halo nuclei.
26847251
How low-energy weak reactions can constrain three-nucleon forces and the neutron-neutron scattering length.
We show that chiral symmetry and gauge invariance enforce relations between the short-distance physics that occurs in a number of electroweak and pionic reactions on light nuclei. Within chiral perturbation theory, this is manifested via the appearance of the same axial isovector two-body contact term in pi(-)d --> nngamma, p-wave pion production in NN collisions, tritium beta decay, pp fusion, nud scattering, and the hep reaction. Using a Gamow-Teller matrix element obtained from calculations of pp fusion as input, we compute the neutron spectrum obtained in pi(-)d --> nngamma. With the short-distance physics in this process controlled from pp --> de(=)nu(e), the theoretical uncertainty in the nn scattering length extracted from pi(-)d --> nngamma is reduced by a factor larger than 3, to approximately < or = 0.05 fm.
9428112
Investigating neutron polarizabilities through Compton scattering on 3He.
We examine manifestations of neutron electromagnetic polarizabilities in coherent Compton scattering from the helium-3 nucleus. We calculate gamma3He elastic scattering observables using chiral perturbation theory to next-to-leading order [O(e2Q)]. We find that the unpolarized differential cross section can be used to measure neutron electric and magnetic polarizabilities, while two double-polarization observables are sensitive to different linear combinations of the four neutron spin polarizabilities.
653219
Restoration of rotational invariance of bound states on the light front
We study bound states in a model with scalar nucleons interacting via an exchanged scalar meson using the Hamiltonian formalism on the light front. In this approach manifest rotational invariance is broken when the Fock space is truncated. By considering an effective Hamiltonian that takes into account two meson exchanges, we find that this breaking of rotational invariance is decreased from that which occurs when only one meson exchange is included. The best improvement occurs when the states are weakly bound. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.
33324518
Short-range interactions in an effective field theory approach for nucleon-nucleon scattering
We investigate in detail the effect of making the range of the {open_quotes}contact{close_quotes} interaction used in effective field theory (EFT) calculations of NN scattering finite. This is done in both an effective field theory with explicit pions, and one where the pions have been integrated out. In both cases we calculate NN scattering in the {sup 1}S{sub 0} channel using potentials which are second order in the EFT expansion. The contact interactions present in the EFT Lagrangian are made finite by use of a square-well regulator. We find that there is an optimal radius for this regulator, at which second-order corrections to the EFT are identically zero; for radii near optimal these second-order corrections are small. The cutoff EFT{close_quote}s which result from this procedure appear to be valid for momenta up to about 100{endash}150MeV/c. We also find that the radius of the square well cannot be reduced to zero if the theory is to reproduce both the experimental scattering length and effective range. Indeed, we show that, if the NN potential is the sum of a one-pion-exchange piece and a short-range interaction, then the short-range piece must extend out beyond 1.05 fm, regardless of its particular form. {copyright} {ital 1997}more » {ital The American Physical Society}« less
119183013
Curvature Constraints from the Causal Entropic Principle
Current cosmological observations indicate a preference for a cosmological constant that is drastically smaller than what can be explained by conventional particle physics. The causal entropic principle (Bousso et al.) provides an alternative approach to anthropic attempts to predict our observed value of the cosmological constant by calculating the entropy created within a causal diamond. We have extended this work to use the causal entropic principle to predict the preferred curvature within the 'multiverse'. We have found that values larger than {rho}{sub k}=40{rho}{sub m} are disfavored by more than 99.99% peak value at {rho}{sub {lambda}}=7.9x10{sup -123} and {rho}{sub k}=4.3{rho}{sub m} for open universes. For universes that allow only positive curvature or both positive and negative curvature, we find a correlation between curvature and dark energy that leads to an extended region of preferred values. Our universe is found to be disfavored to an extent depending on the priors on curvature. We also provide a comparison to previous anthropic constraints on open universes and discuss future directions for this work.
55262459
Effects of Inhomogeneity on the Causal Entropic prediction of Lambda
The causal entropic principle aims to predict the unexpectedly small value of the cosmological constant Lambda using a weighting by entropy increase on causal diamonds. The original work assumed a purely isotropic and homogeneous cosmology. But even the level of inhomogeneity observed in our universe forces reconsideration of certain arguments about entropy production. In particular, we must consider an ensemble of causal diamonds associated with one cosmology, and we can no longer immediately discard entropy production in the far future of the universe. Depending on our choices for a probability measure and our treatment of black hole evaporation, the prediction for Lambda may be left intact or dramatically altered.