A practical approach to perturbative corrections to few-body observables

Abstract

We formulate two methods to facilitate the calculation of perturbative corrections to quantum few-body observables. Both techniques are designed for a numerical realization in combination with any tool that obtains either the entire spectrum or solely the eigenvalues of an operator corresponding to the observable of interest. We exemplify these methods in the context of the nuclear contact theory without pions (Pionless EFT) and benchmark them in the deuteron channel with available analytical, field-theoretical calculations, as well as in the triton and 3-helium channels through earlier extractions within the dibaryon formalism, where in all three systems the point-proton root-mean-square charge radius (rms) was the perturbed observable of choice. Beyond these $A\leq3$ consistency and accuracy checks, we employ the numerical methods to predict the rms of the 4-helium nuclear ground state to assess three different ways of integrating the Coulomb interaction into Pionless EFT. By comparing the respective results at leading and next-to-leading order for 3- and 4-helium, we find that the uncertainty due to the strong, short-range interaction is significantly larger compared with that due to the long-range Coulomb interaction for both bound states with their different binding momenta. Thereby, we provide strong support for simplifying extractions of bound-state observables by shutting off any Coulomb interaction if the strong part of the potential is considered only up to first order in the effective range expansion.