Low-energy effective field theory of the deuteron

The deuteron is the only known bound state of two nucleons at physical quark masses. Yet, it provides an important testing ground for nuclear theory to better understand few-nucleon systems. We use a consistent effective field theory (EFT) developed in Ref. [1] to study proton-deuteron and deuteron-deuteron elastic scatterings in the S=2 channel at low energies below the deuteron breakup momentum (∼45.7 MeV). In this EFT, the deuteron is considered a fundamental particle. Therefore, interactions such as the Coulomb force can be treated analytically. Our study may provide valuable tests for use in the full four-body calculations.

 

[1] G. Rupak et al. “Fate of the neutron–deuteron virtual state as an Efimov level.” In: Phys. Lett. B791(2019), pp. 414–419.