Dissecting Deuteron Compton Scattering I: The Observables with Polarised Initial States

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive set of observables for polarized deuteron Compton scattering, explores their dependence on nucleon polarisabilities within Chiral EFT, and identifies key measurements for extracting spin polarisabilities at 100 MeV.

Contribution

It provides a complete formalism for polarization observables in deuteron Compton scattering and analyzes their sensitivity to nucleon polarisabilities using Chiral EFT with dynamical Delta degrees of freedom.

Findings

Identified 5 observables suitable for extracting nucleon spin polarisabilities.

Demonstrated increased sensitivity to mixed spin polarisabilities due to deuteron structure.

Provided an interactive Mathematica notebook for all observables up to 120 MeV.

Abstract

A complete set of linearly independent observables in Compton scattering with arbitrarily polarised real photons off an arbitrarily polarised spin-1 target is introduced, for the case that the final-state polarisations are not measured. Adopted from the one widely used e.g. in deuteron photo-dissociation, it consists of 18 terms: the unpolarised cross section, the beam asymmetry, 4 target asymmetries and 12 asymmetries in which both beam and target are polarised. They are expressed by the helicity amplitudes and -- where available -- related to observables discussed by other authors. As application to deuteron Compton scattering, their dependence on the (isoscalar) scalar and spin dipole polarisabilities of the nucleon is explored in Chiral Effective Field Theory with dynamical Delta(1232) degrees of freedom at order $e^2\delta^3$. Some asymmetries are sensitive to only one or two dipole polarisabilities, making them particularly attractive for experimental studies. At a photon energy of 100 MeV, a set of 5 observables is identified from which one may be able to extract the spin polarisabilities of the nucleon. These are experimentally realistic but challenging and mostly involve tensor-polarised deuterons. Relative to Compton scattering from a nucleon, sensitivity to the "mixed" spin polarisabilities $\gamma_{E1M2}$ and $\gamma_{M1E2}$ is increased because of interference with the D wave component of the deuteron and with its pion-exchange current. An interactive Mathematica 9.0 notebook with results for all observables at photon energies up to 120 MeV is available from hgrie@gwu.edu. Note May 2017/April 2018: This arXiv version presents the article including the corrections in the Errata Eur. Phys. J. A53 (2017) 113 and A54 (2018) 57 to ibid. A49 (2013) 100. This affects Eqs. (2.12) to (2.14), Figs. 4, 7 to 10, 12, 14 to 16, 18 to 20, 22 and 23, and the corresponding, related text.