Triton and Neutron-Deuteron Scattering up to Next-to-Leading Order in Chiral EFT

TL;DR

This paper investigates the cutoff dependence of three-nucleon observables in Chiral EFT, showing that three-body forces are unnecessary for renormalization up to next-to-leading order, challenging common assumptions.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of cutoff dependence in three-nucleon systems, demonstrating that three-body forces are not required at NLO for proper renormalization.

Findings

Three-nucleon observables show cutoff independence at NLO without three-body forces.

The analysis supports a power counting scheme that avoids the need for three-body forces at NLO.

Results challenge the common assumption that three-body forces are necessary for renormalization at NLO.

Abstract

Determination of the proper power-counting scheme is an important issue for the systematic application of Chiral Effective Field Theory in nuclear physics. We analyze the cutoff dependence of three-nucleon observables (the neutron-deuteron scattering lengths and the triton binding energy) at the leading and next-to-leading orders of a power counting that ensures order-by-order renormalization in the two-nucleon system. Our results imply that three-body forces are not needed for renormalization of the three-nucleon system up to next-to-leading order, as usually assumed in the literature. (Erratum to the original article is included)