Electronic Thesis/Dissertation
 

Pionless Effective Field Theory in Few-Nucleon Systems

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\begin{abstract}A systematic description of low-energy observables in light nuclei is presented. The effective field theory formalism without pions is extended to:\begin{itemize}\itemindent=2cm\item predictions with next-to-leading-order accuracy for\item[] the 4-helium binding energy $B(\alpha)$, the triton charge radius,\item[] and the 3-helium-neutron scattering length;\item phase shifts for neutron-deuteron scattering and $\alpha$-neutron\item[] low-energy scattering at leading order;\item the ground states of the 5-helium (with and without Coulomb interaction)\item[] and 6-helium isotopes up to next-to-leading order;\end{itemize}The convergence from leading- to next-to-leading order of the theory is demonstrated for correlations between:\begin{itemize}\itemindent=3cm\item the triton binding energy $B(t)$ and the triton charge radius;\item $B(t)$ and the 4-helium binding energy $B(\alpha)$;%\item B(t) and r$_c$($\alpha$);\end{itemize}Furthermore, a correlation between $B(t)$ and the scattering length in the singlet S-wave channel of neutron-helium-3 scattering is discovered, and amodel-independent estimate for the trinucleon binding energy splitting is provided.The results provide evidence for the usefulness of the applied power-counting scheme, treating next-to-leading-order interactions nonperturbativelyand four-nucleon interactions as, at least, one order higher. The 5- and 6-helium ground states are analyzed with a power-counting scheme whichincludes the momentum-dependent next-to-leading order vertices perturbatively.All calculations include a full treatment of the Coulomb interaction.The assessment of numerical uncertainties associated with the solution of the few-body equation ofmotion through the Resonating Group Method parallels the report of the results for light nuclei in order to establish this method as practicalfor the analysis of systems with up to six particles interacting via short-range interactions.\end{abstract}

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