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.