arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H. -W. Hammer.
We summarize the findings of our Working Group, which discussed progress in the understanding of Chiral Dynamics in the A=2, 3, and 4 systems over the last three years. We also identify key unresolved theoretical and experimental questions in this field.
Dispersion relations provide a powerful tool to analyse the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon for all momentum transfers. Constraints from meson-nucleon scattering data, unitarity, and perturbative QCD can be included in a straightforward way. In particular, we include the 2pi, rho-pi, and KKbar continua as independent input in our analysis and provide an error band for our results. Moreover, we discuss two different methods to include the asymptotic constraints from perturbative QCD. We simultaneously analyze the world data for all four form factors in both the space-like and time-like regions and generally find good agreement with the data. We also extract the nucleon radii and the omega-NN coupling constants. For the radii, we generally find good agreement with other determinations with the exception of the electric charge radius of the proton which comes out smaller. The omega-NN vector coupling constant is determined relatively well by the fits, but for the tensor coupling constant even the sign can not be determined.
Particles with short-range interactions and a large scattering length have universal low-energy properties that do not depend on the details of their structure or their interactions at short distances. In the 2-body sector, the universal properties are familiar and depend only on the scattering length a. In the 3-body sector for identical bosons, the universal properties include the existence of a sequence of shallow 3-body bound states called "Efimov states" and log-periodic dependence of scattering observables on the energy and the scattering length. The spectrum of Efimov states in the limit a -> +/- infinity is characterized by an asymptotic discrete scaling symmetry that is the signature of renormalization group flow to a limit cycle. In this review, we present a thorough treatment of universality for the system of three identical bosons and we summarize the universal information that is currently available for other 3-body systems. Our basic tools are the hyperspherical formalism to provide qualitative insights, Efimov's radial laws for deriving the constraints from unitarity, and effective field theory for quantitative calculations. We also discuss topics on the frontiers of universality, including its extension to systems with four or more particles and the systematic calculation of deviations from universality.
We show that the recently measured asymmetry in helicity-angle spectra of the Lambda-hyperons produced in the reaction pp -> K^+Lambda p reaction and the energy dependence of the total pp -> K^+Lambda p cross section can be explained consistently by the same Lambda p final-state interaction. Assuming that there is no final-state interaction in the Sigma^0 p channel, as suggested by the available data, we can also reproduce the energy dependence of the Lambda/Sigma^0 production ratio and, in particular, the rather large ratio observed near the reaction thresholds. The nominal ratio of the Lambda and Sigma^0 production amplitudes squared, i.e. when disregarding the final-state interaction, turns out to be about 3, which is in line with hyperon production data from proton and nuclear targets available at high energies.
We present a detailed study of the recently conjectured infrared renormalization group limit cycle in QCD using chiral effective field theory. It was conjectured that small increases in the up and down quark masses can move QCD to the critical trajectory for an infrared limit cycle in the three-nucleon system. At the critical quark masses, the binding energies of the deuteron and its spin-singlet partner are tuned to zero and the triton has infinitely many excited states with an accumulation point at the three-nucleon threshold. We exemplify three parameter sets where this effect occurs at next-to-leading order in the chiral counting. For one of them, we study the structure of the three-nucleon system in detail using both chiral and contact effective field theories. Furthermore, we investigate the matching of the chiral and contact theories in the critical region and calculate the influence of the limit cycle on three-nucleon scattering observables.
We study coherent and incoherent phi-meson photoproduction from nuclei. The available data are analyzed in terms of single and coupled channel photoproduction. It is found that the data on coherent photoproduction can be well reproduced within a single channel optical model and show only little room for omega-phi mixing. These data indicate a normal distortion of the phi-meson in nuclei, which is compatible with the results obtained through the vector meson dominance model. The data on incoherent phi-meson photoproduction show an anomalous A-dependence resulting in a very strong phi-meson distortion. These data can be explained by a coupled channel effect through the dominant contribution from the omega -> phi or pi -> phi transition or, more speculative, through the excitation of a cryptoexotic B_phi-baryon.
We study the energy dependence of the e^+e^- to ppbar cross section close to the two-nucleon threshold, recently reported by the BaBar collaboration. Our analysis also includes the pbarp to e^+e^- data collected by PS170 collaboration and the e^+e^- to NNbar data from the FENICE collaboration. We show that the near-threshold enhancement in the e^+e^- to ppbar cross section can be explained by the final-state interaction between proton and antiproton in the 3S1 partial wave, utilizing the Juelich nucleon-antinucleon model. As a consequence, the strong dependence of the proton electromagnetic form factors on the momentum transfer close to the two-nucleon threshold is presumably also driven by this final-state interaction effect. This result is in line with our previous studies of the near-threshold enhancement of the ppbar invariant mass spectrum seen in the J/Psi to gamma ppbar decay by the BES collaboration and in the B+ to ppbar K+ decay by the BaBar collaboration.
Dispersion relations provide a powerful tool to analyse the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon both in the space-like and time-like regions with constraints from other experiments, unitarity, and perturbative QCD. We give a brief introduction into dispersion theory for nucleon form factors and present first results from our ongoing form factor analysis. We also calculate the two-pion continuum contribution to the isovector spectral functions drawing upon the new high statistics measurements of the pion form factor by the CMD-2, KLOE, and SND collaborations.
We calculate the two-pion continuum contribution to the nucleon isovector spectral functions drawing upon the new high statistics measurements of the pion form factor by the CMD-2, KLOE, and SND collaborations. The general structure of the spectral functions remains unchanged, but the magnitude increases by about 10%. Using the updated spectral functions, we calculate the contribution of the two-pion continuum to the nucleon isovector form factors and radii. We compare the isovector radii with simple rho-pole models and illustrate their strong underestimation in such approaches. Moreover, we give a convenient parametrization of the result for use in future form factor analyses.
A study of the strangeness production reaction pp->pK^+Lambda for excess energies of epsilon \le 150 MeV, accessible at high-luminosity accelerator facilities like COSY, is presented. Methods to analyze the Dalitz plot distribution and angular spectra in the Jackson and helicity frames are worked out and suitable observables for extracting information on low lying resonances that couple to the K-Lambda system and for determining the Lambda-p effective-range parameters from the final state interaction are identified and discussed. Furthermore, the chances for identifying the reaction mechanism of strangeness production are investigated.
We consider the three-nucleon system within an effective theory with contact interactions at leading order in the large scattering length. We calculate the charge form factor of the triton at low momentum transfer and extract the triton charge radius. At this order, no two-body currents contribute and the calculation can be performed in the impulse approximation. We also comment on the power counting for higher orders. The requirement of a three-body force for renormalization of the three-nucleon system explains the previously observed correlation between the triton binding energy and charge radius for different model potentials.
The study of the three-body problem with short-range attractive two-body forces has a rich history going back to the 1930's. Recent applications of effective field theory methods to atomic and nuclear physics have produced a much improved understanding of this problem, and we elucidate some of the issues using renormalization group ideas applied to precise nonperturbative calculations. These calculations provide 11-12 digits of precision for the binding energies in the infinite cutoff limit. The method starts with this limit as an approximation to an effective theory and allows cutoff dependence to be systematically computed as an expansion in powers of inverse cutoffs and logarithms of the cutoff. Renormalization of three-body bound states requires a short range three-body interaction, with a coupling that is governed by a precisely mapped limit cycle of the renormalization group. Additional three-body irrelevant interactions must be determined to control subleading dependence on the cutoff and this control is essential for an effective field theory since the continuum limit is not likely to match physical systems ({\it e.g.}, few-nucleon bound and scattering states at low energy). Leading order calculations precise to 11-12 digits allow clear identification of subleading corrections, but these corrections have not been computed.
Effective Field Theory (EFT) provides a powerful framework that exploits a separation of scales in physical systems to perform systematically improvable, model-independent calculations. Particularly interesting are few-body systems with short-range interactions and large two-body scattering length. Such systems display remarkable universal features. In systems with more than two particles, a three-body force with limit cycle behavior is required for consistent renormalization already at leading order. We will review this EFT and some of its applications in the physics of cold atoms and nuclear physics. In particular, we will discuss the possibility of an infrared limit cycle in QCD. Recent extensions of the EFT approach to the four-body system and N-boson droplets in two spatial dimensions will also be addressed.
We consider the non-relativistic four-boson system with short-range forces and large scattering length in an effective quantum mechanics approach. We construct the effective interaction potential at leading order in the large scattering length and compute the four-body binding energies using the Yakubovsky equations. Cutoff independence of the four-body binding energies does not require the introduction of a four-body force. This suggests that two- and three-body interactions are sufficient to renormalize the four-body system. We apply the equations to 4He atoms and calculate the binding energy of the 4He tetramer. We observe a correlation between the trimer and tetramer binding energies similar to the Tjon line in nuclear physics. Over the range of binding energies relevant to 4He atoms, the correlation is approximately linear.
The renormalization of the attractive 1/r^2 potential has recently been studied using a variety of regulators. In particular, it was shown that renormalization with a square well in position space allows multiple solutions for the depth of the square well, including, but not requiring a renormalization group limit cycle. Here, we consider the renormalization of the 1/r^2 potential in momentum space. We regulate the problem with a momentum cutoff and absorb the cutoff dependence using a momentum-independent counterterm potential. The strength of this counterterm is uniquely determined and runs on a limit cycle. We also calculate the bound state spectrum and scattering observables, emphasizing the manifestation of the limit cycle in these observables.
Effective Field Theory (EFT) provides a powerful framework that exploits a separation of scales in physical systems to perform systematically improvable, model-independent calculations. Particularly interesting are few-body systems with short-range interactions and large two-body scattering length. Such systems display remarkable universal features. In systems with more than two particles, a three-body force with limit cycle behavior is required for consistent renormalization already at leading order. We will review this EFT and some of its applications in the physics of cold atoms and nuclear physics. In particular, we will discuss the possibility of an infrared limit cycle in QCD. Recent extensions of the EFT approach to the four-body system and N-boson droplets in two spatial dimensions will also be addressed.
We consider a system of N nonrelativistic bosons in two dimensions, interacting weakly via a short-range attractive potential. We show that for N large, but below some critical value, the properties of the N-boson bound state are universal. In particular, the ratio of the binding energies of (N+1)- and N-boson systems, B_{N+1}/B_N, approaches a finite limit, approximately 8.567, at large N. We also confirm previous results that the three-body system has exactly two bound states. We find for the ground state B_3^(0) = 16.522688(1) B_2 and for the excited state B_3^(1) = 1.2704091(1) B_2.
We consider the correlation between the binding energies of the triton and the alpha-particle which is empirically observed in calculations employing different phenomenological nucleon-nucleon interactions. Using an effective quantum mechanics approach for short-range interactions with large scattering length |a| >> l, where l is the natural low-energy length scale, we construct the effective interaction potential at leading order in l/|a|. In order to renormalize the four-nucleon system, it is sufficient to include a SU(4)-symmetric one-parameter three-nucleon interaction in addition to the S-wave nucleon-nucleon interactions. The absence of a four-nucleon force at this order explains the empirically observed correlation between the binding energies of the triton and the alpha-particle. We calculate this correlation and obtain a prediction for the alpha-particle binding energy. Corrections to our results are suppressed by l/|a|.