arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Harold W. Fearing.
We construct the general pion-nucleon SU(2) Lagrangian including both virtual photons and leptons for relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory up to fourth order. We include the light leptons as explicit dynamical degrees of freedom by introducing new building blocks which represent these leptons.
The amplitude for ordinary muon capture on the proton is evaluated, through the first four orders in the expansion parameter, in a manifestly Lorentz invariant form of baryon chiral perturbation theory. Expressions for the low energy constants in terms of physical quantities are obtained in each of the several renormalization schemes which have been proposed for forcing the relativistic approach to obey the same counting rules as obtained in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The advantages and disadvantages of these schemes are discussed, using the muon capture results as an example, with the aim of gaining insight as to which scheme is preferable for practical calculations.
The rate of the nuclear reaction $^3He+μ^- \to ^3H+γ+ν_μ$ has been calculated using both the elementary particle model (EPM) approach and the impulse approximation (IA) approach. Using the EPM approach, the exclusive statistical radiative muon capture (RMC) rate for photon energy greater than 57 MeV is found to be $0.245 s^{-1}$ and the ordinary muon capture (OMC) rate to be $1503 s^{-1}$. The IA calculation exhibits a slight dependence on the type of trinucleon wave functions used. The difference between the IA and EPM calculation is larger for RMC than for OMC. To resolve the difference between the two approaches a more detailed investigation including meson exchange corrections will be required.
The induced pseudoscalar coupling $g_p$ is the least well known of the weak coupling constants of the proton's charged--current interaction. Its size is dictated by chiral symmetry arguments, and its measurement represents an important test of quantum chromodynamics at low energies. During the past decade a large body of new data relevant to the coupling $g_p$ has been accumulated. This data includes measurements of radiative and non radiative muon capture on targets ranging from hydrogen and few--nucleon systems to complex nuclei. Herein the authors review the theoretical underpinnings of $g_p$, the experimental studies of $g_p$, and the procedures and uncertainties in extracting the coupling from data. Current puzzles are highlighted and future opportunities are discussed.
We discuss the measurement of polarized photons arising from radiative muon capture. The spectrum of left circularly polarized photons or equivalently the circular polarization of the photons emitted in radiative muon capture on hydrogen is quite sensitive to the strength of the induced pseudoscalar coupling constant $g_P$. A measurement of either of these quantities, although very difficult, might be sufficient to resolve the present puzzle resulting from the disagreement between the theoretical prediction for $g_P$ and the results of a recent experiment. This sensitivity results from the absence of left-handed radiation from the muon line and from the fact that the leading parts of the radiation from the hadronic lines, as determined from the chiral power counting rules of heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory, all contain pion poles.
The differential cross sections and s-wave and p-wave multipoles for $π^- p \to γn$ and $π^+ n \to γp$ have been calculated through $O(p^3)$ in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). Fits to existing data allow several of the low energy constants to be determined. Generally results of the calculation compare well with dispersion relation predictions.
Nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung has long been considered a way of getting information about the off-shell nucleon-nucleon amplitude which would allow one to distinguish among nucleon-nucleon potentials based on their off-shell properties. There have been many calculations and many experiments devoted to this aim. We show here, in contrast to this standard view, that such off-shell amplitudes are not measurable as a matter of principle. This follows formally from the invariance of the S-matrix under transformations of the fields. This result is discussed here and illustrated via two simple models, one applying to spin zero, and one to spin one half, processes. The latter model is very closely related to phenomenological models which have been used to study off-shell effects at electromagnetic vertices.
We respond to the accompanying Comment on our paper, 'Validity of certain soft photon amplitudes'. While we hope the discussion here clarifies the issues, we have found nothing which leads to a change in the original conclusions of our paper.
The differential cross sections for $π^- p \to γn$ and $π^+ n \to γp$ are computed up to $O(p^3)$ in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). The expressions at $O(p)$ and $O(p^2)$ have no free parameters. There are three unknown parameters at $O(p^3)$, low energy constants of the HBChPT Lagrangian, which are determined by fitting to experimental data. Two acceptable fits are obtained, which can be separated by comparing with earlier dispersion relation calculations of the inverse process. Expressions for the multipoles, with emphasis on the p-wave multipoles, are obtained and evaluated at threshold. Generally the results obtained from the best of the two fits are in good agreement with the dispersion relation predictions.
In a recent preprint Cheon and Cheoun have derived from a chiral model an additional term, not usually appearing in the standard matrix element for radiative muon capture. Using that term they generate a large correction to the RMC spectrum which tends to resolve the problem caused by the too large value of $g_P$ found in the TRIUMF RMC experiment. In this comment we observe first that their extra term leads to an amplitude which is not gauge invariant and second that such a term should be present, in a gauge invariant way, in an earlier full chiral perturbation theory calculation, which however found negligible differences from the standard approach.
For nearly fifty years theoretical and experimental efforts in nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung (NN$γ$) have been devoted to measuring off-shell amplitudes and distinguishing among various NN potentials on the basis of their off-shell behavior. New experiments are underway, designed specifically to attain kinematics further off shell than in the past, and thus to be more sensitive to the off-shell behavior. This letter shows that, contrary to these expectations, and due to the invariance of the S-matrix under transformations of the fields, the off-shell NN amplitude is as a matter of principle an unmeasurable quantity in NN$γ$.
We study the low energy expansion of the nucleon's electroweak form factors in the framework of an effective chiral Lagrangian including pions, nucleons and the $Delta (1232)$. We work to third order in the so-called small scale expansion and compare the results with the ones previously obtained in the chiral expansion. In addition, these calculations serve as a first exploratory study of renormalization and decoupling within the small scale expansion.
We have evaluated the amplitude for muon capture by a proton, mu + p --> n + nu, to O(p^3) within the context of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT) using the new O(p^3) Lagrangian of Ecker and Mojzis (E&M). We obtain expressions for the standard muon capture form factors and determine three of the coefficients of the E&M Lagrangian, namely, b_7, b_{19}, and b_{23}. We describe progress on the next step, a calculation of the radiative muon capture process, mu + p --> n + nu + gamma.
The matrix element for muon capture by a proton is calculated to O(p^3) within heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory using the new O(p^3) Lagrangian of Ecker and Mojzis. External nucleon fields are renormalized using the appropriate definition of the wave function renormalization factor Z_N. Our expression for Z_N differs somewhat from that found in existing literature, but is the one which is consistent with the Lagrangian we use and the one which ensures, within our approach, the nonrenormalization of the vector coupling as required by the conserved vector current. Expressions for the standard muon capture form factors are derived and compared to experimental data and we determine three of the coefficients of the Ecker - Mojzis Lagrangian, namely, b_7, b_{19}, and b_{23}.
Certain soft photon amplitudes which have been recently suggested as alternatives to the usual Low form of the soft photon approximation are studied and it is demonstrated that problems exist in their relation to the corresponding non-radiative amplitude. The non-radiative amplitude, which is an input to soft photon calculations, is in certain cases required to be evaluated outside of its physical phase space region. Also, for the case of two-body identical particle bremsstrahlung processes, the symmetrized or antisymmetrized form of these soft photon amplitudes cannot be written in terms of the symmetrized or antisymmetrized amplitude for the non-radiative process. It is found that the usual Low form of the soft photon theorem is essentially unaffected by these problems.