Perturbative calculations of nucleon-deuteron elastic scattering in chiral effective field theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a perturbative framework within chiral effective field theory for calculating nucleon-deuteron elastic scattering, improving computational efficiency and renormalization-group invariance.

Contribution

It develops a novel perturbative approach using integral equations for subleading interactions in chiral EFT, with benchmark validation and application to scattering observables.

Findings

Accurate calculation of differential cross sections and analyzing powers up to NLO.

Framework reduces computational complexity by limiting partial waves.

Benchmark confirms the validity of the perturbative approach.

Abstract

We develop a framework for calculating nucleon-deuteron scattering using strict perturbation theory for treating subleading interactions in chiral effective field theory (ChEFT). Rather than using direct evaluations in the distorted-wave expansion, our approach solves a hierarchy of integral equations to obtain subleading scattering amplitudes. A benchmark with the wave packet continuum-discretization is performed. This framework benefits from the fact that the renormalization-group invariance chiral forces involves only a limited number of two-body partial waves at leading order. We use it to calculate nucleon-deuteron elastic scattering differential cross sections and analyzing powers up to next-to-leading order.