Positivity constraints on the low-energy constants of the chiral pion–nucleon Lagrangian

Positivity constraints on the pion–nucleon scattering amplitude are derived in this article with the help of general S-matrix arguments, such as analyticity, crossing symmetry, and unitarity, in the upper part of the Mandelstam triangle, $\mathcal{R}$ . Scanning inside the region $\mathcal{R}$ , the most stringent bounds on the chiral low-energy constants of the pion–nucleon Lagrangian are determined. When just considering the central values of the fit results from covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory using the extended-on-mass-shell scheme, it is found that these bounds are well respected numerically both at the $O(p^3)$ and the $O(p^4)$ level. Nevertheless, when taking the errors into account, only the $O(p^4)$ bounds are obeyed in the full error interval, while the bounds on the $O(p^3)$ fits are slightly violated. If one disregards the loop contributions, the bounds always fail in certain regions of $\mathcal{R}$ . Thus, at a given chiral order these terms are not numerically negligible and one needs to consider all possible contributions, i.e., both tree-level and loop diagrams.We have provided the constraints for special points in $\mathcal {R}$ where the bounds are nearly optimal in terms of just a few chiral couplings, which can easily be implemented and employed to constrain future analyses. Some issues concerned with calculations with an explicit $\Delta $ resonance are also discussed.     

Study of the charge dependence of the pion–nucleon coupling constant on the basis of data on low-energy nucleon–nucleon interactions

The relation between quantities that characterize the pion–nucleon and nucleon–nucleon interactions is studied with allowance for the fact that, at low energies, nuclear forces in nucleon–nucleon systems are mediated predominantly by one-pion exchange. On the basis of the values currently recommended for the low-energy parameters of the proton–proton interaction, the charged pion–nucleon coupling constant is evaluated at g_π²±/4π = 14.55(13). This value is in perfect agreement with the experimental value of g_π²±/4π = 14.52(26) found by the Uppsala Neutron Research Group. At the same time, the value obtained for the charged pion–nucleon coupling constant differs sizably from the value of the pion–nucleon coupling constant for neutral pions, which is g_π² 0/4π = 13.55(13). This is indicative of a substantial charge dependence of the coupling constant.     

Isospin breaking in the pion–nucleon scattering lengths

We analyze isospin breaking through quark mass differences and virtual photons in the pion–nucleon scattering lengths in all physical channels in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory.     

The super-heat-kernel expansion and the renormalization of the pion–nucleon interaction

A recently proposed super-heat-kernel technique is applied to heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. A previous result for the one-loop divergences of the pion–nucleon system to is confirmed, giving at the same time an impressive demonstration of the efficiency of the new method. The cumbersome and tedious calculations of the conventional approach are now reduced to a few simple algebraic manipulations. The present computational scheme is not restricted to chiral perturbation theory, but can easily be applied or extended to any (in general non-renormalizable) theory with boson–fermion interactions. Received: 21 July 1998 / Published online: 5 October 1998     

Strangeness in the nucleon: neutrino–nucleon and polarized electron–nucleon scattering

After the EMC and subsequent experiments at CERN, SLAC and DESY on the deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons on polarized nucleons, it is now established that the Q²=0 value of the axial strange form factor of the nucleon, a quantity which is connected with the spin of the proton and is quite relevant from the theoretical point of view, is relatively large.In this review, we consider different methods and observables that allow one to obtain information on the strange axial and vector form factors of the nucleon at different values of Q². These methods are based on the investigation of the neutral current induced effects such as the P-odd asymmetry in the scattering of polarized electrons on protons and nuclei, the elastic neutrino (antineutrino) scattering on protons and the quasi-elastic neutrino (antineutrino) scattering on nuclei. We discuss in detail the phenomenology of these processes and the existing experimental data.     

Quadrupole polarizabilities of the pion in the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

The electromagnetic dipole and quadrupole polarizabilities of the neutral and charged pions are calculated in the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model. Our results agree with the recent experimental analysis of these quantities based on dispersion sum rules. Comparison is made with the results from the chiral perturbation theory.     

Supercurrent coupling in the Faddeev–Skyrme model

Motivated by the sigma model limit of multicomponent Ginzburg–Landau theory, a version of the Faddeev–Skyrme model is considered in which the scalar field is coupled dynamically to a one-form field called the supercurrent. This coupled model is investigated in the general setting where physical space M$M$ is an oriented Riemannian manifold and the target space N$N$ is a Kähler manifold, and its properties are compared with the usual, uncoupled Faddeev–Skyrme model. In the case N=S²$N=S^2$, it is shown that supercurrent coupling destroys the familiar topological lower energy bound of Vakulenko and Kapitanski when M=R³$M={\mathbb{R}}^3$, and the less familiar linear bound when M$M$ is a compact 3-manifold. Nonetheless, local energy minimizers may still exist. The first variation formula is derived and used to construct three families of static solutions of the model, all on compact domains. In particular, a coupled version of the unit charge hopfion on a three-sphere of arbitrary radius is found. The second variation formula is derived, and used to analyze the stability of some of these solutions. In particular, it is shown that, in contrast to the uncoupled model, the coupled unit hopfion on the three-sphere of radius R$R$ is unstable   for all R$R$. This gives an explicit, exact example of supercurrent coupling destabilizing a stable solution of the usual Faddeev–Skyrme model, and casts doubt on the conjecture of Babaev, Faddeev and Niemi that knot solitons should exist in the low energy regime of two-component superconductors.     

The pion–nucleon scattering lengths from pionic hydrogen and deuterium

This is the final publication of the ETH Zurich–Neuchatel–PSI collaboration on the pionic hydrogen and deuterium precision X-ray experiments. We describe the recent hydrogen 3p–1s measurement, report on the determination of the Doppler effect correction to the transition line width, analyze the deuterium shift measurement and discuss implications of the combined hydrogen and deuterium results. From the pionic hydrogen 3p–1s transition experiments we obtain the strong-interaction energy level shift eV and the total decay width eV of the state. Taking into account the electromagnetic corrections we find the hadronic s-wave scattering amplitude for elastic scattering and for single charge exchange, respectively. We then combine the pionic hydrogen results with the 1s level shift measurement on pionic deuterium and test isospin symmetry of the strong interaction: our data are still compatible with isospin symmetry. The isoscalar and isovector scattering lengths (within the framework of isospin symmetry) are found to be and , respectively. Using the GMO sum rule, we obtain from a new value of the coupling constant () from which follows the Goldberger–Treiman discrepancy . The new values of and imply an increase of the nucleon sigma term by at least 9 MeV. Received: 20 April 2001 / Revised version: 6 July 2001 / Published online: 24 August 2001     

Strong nucleon and Δ-isobar form factors in the quark-confinement model

The nucleon and the -isobar are investigated as three-quark systems in the quark-confinement model (QCM). This model is based on two hypotheses. First, quark confinement is accomplished through averaging over some vacuum gluon fields which are assumed to provide the confinement of any colour states. Second, hadrons are treated as collective colourless excitations of quark-gluon interactions.The QCM is applied to low-energy baryon physics. The nucleon magnetic moments and electromagnetic radii, the ratioG _A /G _V , and the decay width for p are calculated. The behaviour of the electromagnetic and strong mesonnucleon (meson-isobar) form factors is determined for space-like momentum transfers. The results are compared with experimental data for the electromagnetic form factors and phenomenological strong form factors as used in the Bonn potential.     

Bose–Einstein correlations of neutral and charged pions in hadronic Z decays

Bose–Einstein correlations of both neutral and like-sign charged pion pairs are measured in a sample of 2 million hadronic Z decays collected with the L3 detector at LEP. The analysis is performed in the four-momentum difference range 300 MeV<Q<2 GeV. The radius of the neutral pion source is found to be smaller than that of charged pions. This result is in qualitative agreement with the string fragmentation model.     

Application of a folding-model optical potential to analyzing inelastic pion–nucleus scattering and the in-medium effect on a pion–nucleon amplitude

The folding-model optical potential is generalized in such a way as to apply it to calculating the cross sections for inelastic scattering of π ^±-mesons on ²⁸Si, ⁴⁰Ca, ⁵⁸Ni, and ²⁰⁸Pb nuclei at the energies of 162, 180, 226, and 291 MeV leading to the excitation of the 2⁺ and 3^? collective states. In doing this, use is made of known nucleon-density distributions in nuclei and the pion–nucleon scattering amplitude whose parameters were obtained previously by fitting the elastic scattering cross sections for the same nuclei. Thus, the values of quadrupole (β ₂) and octupole (β ₃) deformations of nuclei appear here as the only adjustable parameters. The scattering cross section is calculated by solving the relativistic wave equation, whereby effects of relativization and distortion in the entrance and exit scattering channels are taken exactly into account. The cross sections calculated in this way for inelastic scattering are in good agreement with respective experimental data. The importance of the inclusion of in-medium effects in choosing parameters of the pion–nucleon amplitude is emphasized.     

Spin–spin coupling constants in linear substituted HCN clusters

The indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants of homogeneous hydrogen-bonded HCN clusters are compared with those of inhomogeneous HCN clusters where one of the terminal HCN molecules is substituted by its isomer HNC and by LiCN. Both the intra- and intermolecular (across the hydrogen bond) coupling constants are calculated for the linear form of the clusters containing up to three molecular monomers using different hybrid DFT functionals. The geometry of the monomers and clusters is optimised at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level. The effect of substitution by the ionic compound LiCN on the coupling constants of HCN is found to be more pronounced than that by HNC. The Ramsey parameters that form the total spin–spin coupling constants are also analysed individually. Among the four Ramsey parameters, the Fermi Contact term is found to be the dominant contributor to the total coupling constants in most cases. The presence of LiCN in the cluster tends to decrease the intramolecular Fermi Contact values, while HNC increases the same in all dimers and trimers. The contributions of localised molecular orbitals have been analysed for the HCN–HNC cluster to obtain some additional insight about the SSCC transmission mechanism along the coupling pathway.     

NMR spin–spin coupling constants in microhydrated ortho-aminobenzoic acid

The influence of the hydrogen-bond formation on the NMR spin–spin coupling constants, including the Fermi contact, the diamagnetic spin–orbit, the paramagnetic spin–orbit and the spin dipole term, has been investigated for the ortho-aminobenzoic acid microhydrated with up to three water molecules. The one-bond and two-bond spin–spin coupling constants for several intra-molecular and across-the-hydrogen-bond atomic pairs are calculated employing high-level density functional theory in combination with the B3LYP functional with two different types of extended basis sets for each level of microhydration. The spin–spin coupling constants, in general, vary inversely with the hydrogen bond length. The Fermi contact term is found to be the dominant contributor to the total value of spin–spin coupling constant followed by the paramagnetic spin–orbit term. The variations of Fermi contact term and atomic charge distribution with size of microhydration follow quite similar trend. The effect of explicit solvation provided by microhydration has also been compared briefly with that of bulk implicit solvation obtained through polarised continuum model and mixed microhydration/continuum approach.     

Molecular properties in the Tamm–Dancoff approximation: indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants

The Tamm–Dancoff approximation (TDA) can be applied to the computation of excitation energies using time-dependent Hartree–Fock (TD-HF) and time-dependent density-functional theory (TD-DFT). In addition to simplifying the resulting response equations, the TDA has been shown to significantly improve the calculation of triplet excitation energies in these theories, largely overcoming issues associated with triplet instabilities of the underlying reference wave functions. Here, we examine the application of the TDA to the calculation of another response property involving triplet perturbations, namely the indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constant. Particular attention is paid to the accuracy of the triplet spin–dipole and Fermi-contact components. The application of the TDA in HF calculations leads to vastly improved results. For DFT calculations, the TDA delivers improved stability with respect to geometrical variations but does not deliver higher accuracy close to equilibrium geometries. These observations are rationalised in terms of the ground- and excited-state potential energy surfaces and, in particular, the severity of the triplet instabilities associated with each method. A notable feature of the DFT results within the TDA is their similarity across a wide range of different functionals. The uniformity of the TDA results suggests that some conventional evaluations may exploit error cancellations between approximations in the functional forms and those arising from triplet instabilities. The importance of an accurate treatment of correlation for evaluating spin–spin coupling constants is highlighted by this comparison.     

Self–similar and charged spheres in the free–streaming approximation

We evolve nonadiabatic charged spherical distributions of matter. Dissipation is described by the free–streaming approximation. We match a self–similar interior solution with the Reissner–Nordstr?m–Vaidya exterior solution. The transport mechanism is decisive to the fate of the gravitational collapse. Almost a half of the total initial mass is radiated away. The transport mechanism determines the way in which the electric charge is redistributed.     

Two-, three-, and four-bond N–F spin–spin coupling constants in fluoroazines

Ab initio EOM-CCSD calculations have been performed to investigate 2-, 3- and 4-bond ¹⁵N–¹⁹F coupling constants in mono-, di-, and trifluoroazines. ²J(N–F) values are negative and are dominated by the Fermi-contact (FC) term. Absolute values of ²J(N–F) tend to decrease as the number of N atoms in the ring increases, and may also be influenced by the number and positions of C–F bonds. ³J(N–F) values are positive with three exceptions, are usually dominated by the FC term, and also tend to decrease as the number of N atoms increases. The three molecules which have negative values of ³J(N–F) have dominant negative paramagnetic-spin orbit (PSO) terms, and are structurally similar insofar as they have an intervening C–F bond between the N and the coupled F. ⁴J(N–F) values are negative because the PSO, FC, and spin-dipole (SD) terms are negative, with only one exception. Four molecules have significantly greater values of ⁴J(N–F). These are structurally similar with the coupled N bonded to two other N atoms. The computed EOM-CCSD ⁿJ(N–F) coupling constants are in good agreement with the few experimental values that are available.