arXiv subjects

Kuniharu Kubodera

Publications and source records attributed to Kuniharu Kubodera.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2013

Radiative corrections to anti-neutrino proton scattering

The inverse $β$-decay reaction, $ \barν_e p \to e^+ n$, for low-energy anti-neutrinos coming from nuclear reactors is of great current interest in connection with high-precision measurements of the neutrino mixing angle $θ_{13}$. We have derived analytic expressions, up to next-to-leading order in heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory, for the radiative corrections (RCs) and the nucleon-recoil corrections both for this reaction and for the related neutron $β$-decay process. We show that the recoil corrections, which include the "weak magnetism" contribution, are small for neutron $β$-decay, but for inverse $β$-decay, the recoil corrections are comparable in size to the RCs for typical energies of reactor anti-neutrinos, and they have opposite signs. The RCs and the recoil corrections exhibit very different dependences on the neutrino energy.

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arXiv2010

Effective Field Theory and High-Precision Calculations of Nuclear Electroweak Processes

High-precision calculations of electroweak processes in light nuclei are of great importance for multiple reasons. Gerry Brown together with Dan-Olof Riska published in 1972 a famous calculation on radiative capture of a thermal neutron on a proton, and their work was a precursor of subsequent great developments in high-precision calculations of electroweak processes in light nuclei. The application of effective field theory to nuclear systems is a prominent example of these developments. We present an overview of it with main emphasis placed on those topics in which we ourselves have been involved.

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arXiv2007

The effect of Kaon Condensation on Quark-Antiquark Condensate in Dense Matter

Assuming that at sufficiently high densities the constituent quarks become relevant degrees of freedom, we study within the framework of a chiral quark model the influence of s-wave $K^-$ condensation on the quark-antiquark condensates. We find that, in linear density approximation, the presence of a $K^-$ condensate quenches the $\bar{u}u$ condensate, but that the $\bar{d}d$ condensate remains unaffected up to the chiral order under consideration. We discuss the implication of the suppressed $\bar{u}u$ condensate for flavor-dependent chiral symmetry restoration in dense matter

hep-ph↗

arXiv2005

Neutron-Neutron Fusion

The neutron-neutron fusion process, $nn\to deν$, at very low neutron energies is studied in the framework of pionless effective field theory that incorporates dibaryon fields. The cross section and electron energy spectrum for this process are calculated up to next-to-leading order. We include the radiative corrections of ${\cal O}(α)$ calculated for the one-body transition amplitude. The precision of our theoretical estimates is found to be governed essentially by the accuracy with which the empirical values of the neutron-neutron scattering length and effective range are currently known. Also discussed is the precision of theoretical estimates of the transition rates of related electroweak processes in few-nucleon systems.

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arXiv2004

The Solar $Hep$ Process

The $Hep$ process is a weak-interaction reaction, $He3 + p \to He4 + e^+ + ν_e$, 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 $Hep$.

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arXiv2004

Fixed-Point Analysis of the Low-Energy Constants in the Pion-Nucleon Chiral Lagrangian

In the framework of heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory, we investigate the fixed point structure of renormalization group equations (RGE) for the ratios of the renormalized low energy constants (LECs) that feature in the pion-nucleon chiral Lagrangian. The ratios of the LECs deduced from our RGE analysis are found to be in semi-quantitative agreement with those obtained from direct fit to the experimental data. The naturalness of this agreement is discussed using a simple dimensional analysis combined with Wilsonian RGEs.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

The Solar $hep$ Processes in Effective Field Theory

By combining effective field theory with the standard nuclear physics approach (SNPA) we obtain a high-precision estimate of the $S$ factor for the solar $hep$ process. The accurate wave functions available in SNPA are used to evaluate the nuclear matrix elements for the transition operators that result from chiral perturbation theory (ChPT). All the contributions up to \nlo3 in ChPT are included. The resulting parameter-free, error-controlled prediction is: $S(hep)=(8.6 \pm 1.3)\times 10^{-20}$ keV-b.

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arXiv2001

Analysis of ordinary and radiative muon capture in liquid hydrogen

A simultaneous analysis is made of the measured rates of ordinary muon capture (OMC) and radiative muon capture (RMC) in liquid hydrogen, using theoretical estimates for the relevant atomic capture rates that have been obtained in chiral perturbation theory with the use of the most recent values of the coupling constants. We reexamine the basic formulas for relating the atomic OMC and RMC rates to the liquid-hydrogen OMC and RMC rates, respectively. Although the analysis is significantly influenced by ambiguity in the molecular state population, we can demonstrate that, while the OMC data can be reproduced, the RMC data can be explained only with unrealistic values of the coupling constants; the degree of difficulty becomes even more severe when we try to explain the OMC and RMC data simultaneously.

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arXiv2001

BRST invariant $CP^{1}$ model through improved Dirac quantization

The Batalin-Fradkin-Tyutin (BFT) scheme, which is an improved version of Dirac quantization, is applied to the $CP^1$ model, and the compact form of a nontrivial first-class Hamiltonian is directly obtained by introducing the BFT physical fields. We also derive a BRST-invariant gauge fixed Lagrangian through the standard path-integral procedure. Furthermore, performing collective coordinate quantization we obtain energy spectrum of rigid rotator in the $CP^1$ model. Exploiting the Hopf bundle, we also show that the $CP^1$ model is exactly equivalent to the O(3) nonlinear sigma model at the canonical level.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Capture rate and neutron helicity asymmetry for ordinary muon capture on hydrogen

Applying heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory to ordinary muon capture (OMC) on a proton, we calculate the capture rate and neutron helicity asymmetry up to next-to-next-to-leading order. For the singlet hyperfine state, we obtain the capture rate Gamma_0 = 695 sec^{-1} while, for the triplet hyperfine state, we obtain the capture rate Gamma_1 = 11.9 sec^{-1} and the neutron asymmetry alpha_1 = 0.93. If the existing formalism is used to relate these atomic capture rates to Gamma_{liq}, the OMC rate in liquid hydrogen, then Gamma_{liq} corresponding to our improved values of Gamma_0 and Gamma_1 is found to be significantly larger than the experimental value, primarily due to the updated larger value of g_A. We argue that this apparent difficulity may be correlated to the specious anomaly recently reported for mu^- + p to n + nu_mu + gamma, and we suggest a possibility to remove these two "problems" simply and simultaneously by reexamining the molecular physics input that underlies the conventional analysis of Gamma_{liq}.

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arXiv2000

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.

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arXiv1999

On Making Predictions With Effective Field Theories In Nuclear Physics

Based on the effective field theory previously formulated by us to accurately postdict all low-energy two-nucleon properties as well as predict certain electroweak transitions in heavy nuclei, we make parameter-free predictions for the polarized np capture process \vec{n}+\vec{p} --> d +γpresently being measured at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble. Other participants of this meeting are invited to make their own predictions using their preferred approaches and join the bet for the best prediction to confront the forthcoming experiment.

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arXiv1999

Chiral symmetry in nuclei

Effective field theory is considered to provide a highly useful framework for connecting nuclear physics with the symmetries and dynamics of the underlying theory of strong interactions, QCD. Of many issues that are of great current interest in this domain, I concentrate here on two: (1) A new class of ab initio calculations of obsevables in two-nucleon systems; (2) Attempts to extend chiral perturbation calculations to higher-order terms.

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arXiv1998

The Power Of Effective Field Theories In Nuclei: The Deuteron, NN Scattering and Electroweak Processes

We show how effectively effective quantum field theories work in nuclear physics. Using the physically transparent cut-off regularization, we study the simplest nuclear systems of two nucleons for both bound and scattering states at a momentum scale much less than the pion mass. We consider all the static properties of the deuteron, the two-nucleon scattering phase-shifts, the n + p --> d + γprocess at thermal energy and the solar proton fusion process p + p --> d + e(+) + ν(e), and we demonstrate that these are all described with great accuracy in the expansion to the next-to-leading order. We explore how a "new" degree of freedom enters in an effective theory by turning on and off the role of the pion in the Lagrangian.

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arXiv1998

Effective Field Theory for Low-Energy Two-Nucleon Systems

We illustrate how effective field theories work in nuclear physics by using an effective Lagrangian in which all other degrees of freedom than the nucleonic one have been integrated out to calculate the low-energy properties of two-nucleon systems, viz, the deuteron properties, the np 1S0 scattering amplitude and the M1 transition amplitude entering into the radiative np capture process. Exploiting a finite cut-off regularization procedure, we find all the two-nucleon low-energy properties to be accurately described with little cut-off dependence, in consistency with the general philosophy of effective field theories.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1998

The Solar Proton Burning Process Revisited In Chiral Perturbation Theory

The proton burning process p + p -> d + e(+) + ν(e), important for the stellar evolution of main-sequence stars of mass equal to or less than that of the Sun, is computed in effective field theory using chiral perturbation expansion to the next-to-next-to leading chiral order. This represents a model-independent calculation consistent with low-energy effective theory of QCD comparable in accuracy to the radiative np capture at thermal energy previously calculated by first using very accurate two-nucleon wavefunctions backed up by an effective field theory technique with a finite cut-off. The result obtained thereby is found to support within theoretical uncertainties the previous calculation of the same process by Bahcall and his co-workers.

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arXiv1994

Chiral perturbation in dense matter and meson condensation controversy

An outstanding problem in the study of possible kaon condensation is the striking discrepancy between the results of chiral perturbation theory and those of the PCAC-plus-current-algebra approach. I discuss here what causes this discrepancy and what needs to be done to solve the problem. In addition, I point out the importance of examining the validity of the non-relativistic approximation universally employed in the existing treatments of kaon condensation.

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arXiv1994

Nuclear Matrix Elements of Axial-Charge Exchange Currents Derived in Heavy-Fermion Chiral Perturbation Theory

We calculate shell-model matrix elements of the axial-charge exchange current operators that have been obtained up to the next-to-leading order from heavy-fermion chiral perturbation theory. It is found that loop corrections to the soft one-pion-exchange contribution are small (around 10 \%) and have no significant dependence on the nuclear mass number or on the valence-nucleon orbits. These results render further support to the chiral-filtering conjecture.

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