Perturbative chiral nucleon-nucleon potential for the $^3P_0$ partial wave

TL;DR

This paper investigates the perturbative nature of chiral nuclear forces in the $^3P_0$ channel, demonstrating that the combined force becomes perturbative up to higher energies than previously established, which benefits nuclear structure modeling.

Contribution

It shows that cancellation of short and long-range components can soften the $^3P_0$ chiral force, extending its perturbative regime up to about 280 MeV.

Findings

Combined $^3P_0$ force is perturbative up to $k \,\simeq\, 280$ MeV

Perturbativeness extends beyond previous estimates for this channel

Potential for improved nuclear-structure calculations using perturbative chiral forces

Abstract

We study perturbativeness of chiral nuclear forces in the $^3P_0$ channel. In previous works, the focus has been on one-pion exchange, and the applicable window of perturbative pion exchanges has been shown to span from threshold to the center-of-mass momentum $k \simeq$ 180 MeV. We will examine, instead, whether cancellation of short and long-range parts can sufficiently soften the $^3P_0$ chiral force to make it more amenable to perturbation theory. The result is encouraging, as the combined $^3P_0$ force is shown to be perturbative up to $k \simeq$ 280 MeV, covering many nuclear-structure calculations.