Is Heavy Baryon Approach Necessary?

TL;DR

This paper shows that proper renormalization in relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory can replace the heavy baryon approach, simplifying calculations without losing accuracy, as demonstrated through two-loop diagrams.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the heavy baryon approach is not necessary if an appropriate renormalization condition is used in relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory.

Findings

Power counting can be maintained without heavy baryon techniques.

Explicit two-loop calculations support the approach.

Heavy baryon approach is useful but not essential.

Abstract

It is demonstrated that using an appropriately chosen renormalization condition one can respect power counting within the relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory without appealing to the technique of the heavy baryon approach. Explicit calculations are performed for diagrams including two-loops. It is argued that the introduction of the heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory was useful but not necessary.