Partial wave correlations with uncertainties in the Two Nucleon System

TL;DR

This paper investigates how experimental and systematic uncertainties influence partial wave correlations in the two-nucleon system, emphasizing the importance of these correlations in nuclear force modeling and phase-shift analysis.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of correlations in NN scattering data, considering both statistical and systematic uncertainties, and discusses implications for nuclear potential fitting.

Findings

Correlations among channels are significantly affected by experimental uncertainties.

Systematic ambiguities in nuclear potentials impact phase-shift interpretations.

Understanding these correlations aids in refining nuclear force models.

Abstract

The NN scattering problem is usually analyzed in terms of partial waves and the corresponding coupled channel phase-shifts and mixing angles, but the available experiments induce correlations amongst the corresponding channels with different quantum numbers. Based on the Granada-2013 database we analyze the meaning and impact of those correlations taking into account both the purely statistical ones reflecting the primary experimental data uncertainties as well as the systematic ones exhibiting the ambiguities in the form of the potential representing the unknown nuclear force for distances below 3fm. We also ponder on the implications of fixing nuclear potentials by direct fits to the phase-shifts stemming from a full fledged partial wave analysis (PWA) inferred from experimental data.