chiral effective field theory

[Paper] Sensitivities and correlations of nuclear structure observables emerging from chiral interactions

Sensitivities and correlations of nuclear structure observables emerging from chiral interactions

Angelo Calci and Robert Roth

doi: 10.1103/PhysRevC.94.014322

Abstract

Starting from a set of different two- and three-nucleon interactions from chiral effective field theory, we use the importance-truncated no-core shell model for ab initio calculations of excitation energies as well as electric quadrupole (E2) and magnetic dipole (M1) moments and transition strengths for selected p-shell nuclei. We explore the sensitivity of the excitation energies to the chiral interactions as a first step towards and systematic uncertainty propagation from chiral inputs to nuclear structure observables. The uncertainty band spanned by the different chiral interactions is typically in agreement with experimental excitation energies, but we also identify observables with notable discrepancies beyond the theoretical uncertainty that reveal insufficiencies in the chiral interactions. For electromagnetic observables we identify correlations among pairs of E2 or M1 observables based on the ab initio calculations for the different interactions. We find extremely robust correlations for E2 observables and illustrate how these correlations can be used to predict one observable based on an experimental datum for the second observable. In this way we circumvent convergence issues and arrive at far more accurate results than any direct ab initio calculation. A prime example for this approach is the quadrupole moment of the first 2+ state in C12, which is predicted with an drastically improved accuracy.

[paper] Deuteron magnetic quadrupole moment from chiral effective field theory

Deuteron magnetic quadrupole moment from chiral effective field theory

C.-P. Liu et al.

doi: 10.1016/j.physletb.2012.06.024

We calculate the magnetic quadrupole moment (MQM) of the deuteron at leading order in the systematic expansion provided by chiral effective field theory. We take into account parity (P) and time-reversal (T) violation which, at the quark–gluon level, results from the QCD vacuum angle and dimension-six operators that originate from physics beyond the Standard Model. We show that the deuteron MQM can be expressed in terms of five low-energy constants that appear in the P- and T-violating nuclear potential and electromagnetic current, four of which also contribute to the electric dipole moments of light nuclei. We conclude that the deuteron MQM has an enhanced sensitivity to the QCD vacuum angle and that its measurement would be complementary to the proposed measurements of light-nuclear EDMs.