Effective Field Theory Expansion Research Articles

Vices and virtues of Higgs effective field theories at large energy

We study constraints on new physics from Higgs production at the LHC in the context of an effective field theory (EFT), focusing on Higgs searches in $HV$ ($V=W,Z$) associated production which are particularly sensitive to the high-energy behavior of certain dimension-6 operators. We show that analyses of these searches are generally dominated by a kinematic region where the generic EFT expansion breaks down, and establish under which conditions they can nevertheless be meaningful. For example, constraints from these searches on the Wilson coefficients of operators whose effects grow with energy can be established in scenarios where a particular combination of fermions and the Higgs are composite and strongly coupled: then, bounds from Higgs physics at high energy are complementary to LEP1 and competitive with LEP2.

Non-canonical inflation in supergravity

We investigate the effect of non-canonical kinetic terms on inflation in supergravity. We find that the biggest impact of such higher-derivative kinetic terms is due to the corrections to the potential that they induce via their effect on the auxiliary fields, which now have a cubic equation of motion. This is in contrast to the usual (non-supersymmetric) effective field theory expansion which assumes that mass-suppressed higher-derivative terms do not affect the lower-derivative terms already present. We demonstrate with several examples that such changes in the potential can significantly modify the inflationary dynamics. Our results have immediate implications for effective descriptions of inflation derived from string theory, where higher-derivative kinetic terms are generally present. In addition we elucidate the structure of the theory in the parameter range where there are three real solutions to the auxiliary field's equation of motion, studying the resulting three branches of the theory, and finding that one of them suffers from a singularity in the speed of propagation of fluctuations.

Magnetic form factor of the deuteron in chiral effective field theory

We calculate the magnetic form factor of the deuteron up to $O(e{P}^{4})$ in the chiral effective field theory expansion of the electromagnetic current operator. The two low-energy constants which enter the two-body part of the isoscalar NN three-current operator are fit to experimental data, and the resulting values are of natural size. The $O(e{P}^{4})$ description of ${G}_{M}$ agrees with data for momentum transfers ${Q}^{2}<0.35$ GeV${}^{2}$.

Short-range nuclear forces in singlet channels

Continuing our effort to build a consistent power counting for chiral nuclear effective field theory (EFT), we discuss the subleading contact interactions, or counterterms, in the singlet channels of nucleon-nucleon scattering, with renormalization group invariance as the constraint. We argue that the rather large cutoff error of the leading amplitude requires $\mathcal{O}(Q)$ of the EFT expansion to be nonvanishing, contrary to Weinberg's original power counting. This, together with the ultraviolet divergences of two-pion exchanges in the distorted-wave expansion, leads to enhancement of the ${}^{1}{S}_{0}$ counterterms and results in a pionless-theory-like power counting for the singlet channels.

Power counting and perturbative one pion exchange in heavy meson molecules

We discuss the possible power counting schemes that can be applied in the effective field theory description of heavy meson molecules, such as the X(3872) or the recently discovered Zb(10610) and Zb(10650) states. We argue that the effect of coupled channels is suppressed by at least two orders in the effective field theory expansion, meaning that they can be safely ignored at lowest order. The role of the one pion exchange potential between the heavy mesons, and in particular the tensor force, is also analyzed. By using techniques developed in atomic physics for handling power-law singular potentials, which have been also successfully employed in nuclear physics, we determine the range of center-of-mass momenta for which the tensor piece of the one pion exchange potential is perturbative. In this momentum range, the one pion exchange potential can be considered a subleading order correction, leaving at lowest order a very simple effective field theory consisting only on contact-range interactions.

Effective theories of single field inflation when heavy fields matter

We compute the low energy effective field theory (EFT) expansion for single-field inflationary models that descend from a parent theory containing multiple other scalar fields. By assuming that all other degrees of freedom in the parent theory are sufficiently massive relative to the inflaton, it is possible to derive an EFT valid to arbitrary order in perturbations, provided certain generalized adiabaticity conditions are respected. These conditions permit a consistent low energy EFT description even when the inflaton deviates off its adiabatic minimum along its slowly rolling trajectory. By generalizing the formalism that identifies the adiabatic mode with the Goldstone boson of this spontaneously broken time translational symmetry prior to the integration of the heavy fields, we show that this invariance of the parent theory dictates the entire non-perturbative structure of the descendent EFT. The couplings of this theory can be written entirely in terms of the reduced speed of sound of adiabatic perturbations. The resulting operator expansion is distinguishable from that of other scenarios, such as standard single inflation or DBI inflation. In particular, we re-derive how certain operators can become transiently strongly coupled along the inflaton trajectory, consistent with slow-roll and the validity of the EFT expansion, imprinting features in the primordial power spectrum, and we deduce the relevant cubic operators that imply distinct signatures in the primordial bispectrum which may soon be constrained by observations.

Viscosity of an ideal relativistic quantum fluid: A perturbative study

We show that a quantized ideal fluid will generally exhibit a small but non-zero viscosity due to the backreaction of quantum soundwaves on the background. We use an effective field theory expansion to estimate this viscosity to first order in perturbation theory. We discuss our results, and whether this estimate can be used to obtain a more model-independent estimate of the "quantum bound" on the viscosity of physical systems

Perturbative renormalizability of chiral two-pion exchange in nucleon-nucleon scattering:PandDwaves

We study the perturbative renormalizability of chiral two pion exchange in nucleon-nucleon scattering for p- and d-waves within the effective field theory approach. The one pion exchange potential is fully iterated at the leading order in the expansion, a choice generating a consistent and well-defined power counting that we explore in detail. The results show that perturbative chiral two pion exchange reproduces the data up to a center-of-mass momentum of k_cm ~300 MeV at NNLO and that the effective field theory expansion convergences up to k_cm ~ 350 MeV.

Electric dipole moments of light nuclei from chiral effective field theory

We set up the framework for the calculation of electric dipole moments (EDMs) of light nuclei using the systematic expansion provided by chiral effective field theory (EFT). We take into account parity (P) and time-reversal (T) violation which, at the quark-gluon level, originates from the QCD vacuum angle and dimension-six operators capturing physics beyond the Standard Model. We argue that EDMs of light nuclei can be expressed in terms of six low-energy constants that appear in the P- and T-violating nuclear potential and electric current. As examples, we calculate the EDMs of the deuteron, the triton, and 3He in leading order in the EFT expansion.

Constructing flat inflationary potentials in supersymmetry

We show that in supersymmetry one can obtain inflationary potentials in the observable sector that are sufficiently flat at sub-Planckian field values. Structure of the supersymmetric scalar potential along a flat direction combined with the existence of higher order terms in an effective field theory expansion allows one to find scales below the effective field theory cutoff where two or a higher number of the potential derivatives may vanish. As an explicit example, we demonstrate that inflection point inflation within a broad range of scales $\mathcal{O}(\mathrm{TeV})\ensuremath{\ll}{H}_{\mathrm{inf}}<3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{9}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ can be accommodated within weak scale supersymmetry. The fine tuning of model parameters needed for successful inflation is considerably improved in this scenario.

Triton Electric Form Factor at Low Energies

By using of the Effective Field Theory (EFT) expansion recently developed by the authors, the charge form factor of triton has been calculated up to next-to-next-to-leading order (N2LO). Three-nucleon forces (3NF) are required for renormalization of the three-nucleon system. 3NF effect is predicted for process and it is qualitatively supported by available experimental data. With the 3H binding energy and scattering length as input, we obtain predictions of the pionless EFT for the root-mean-square charge radius of 3H of (1.775 ± 0.023) fm up to N2LO. We show that, by including higher-order corrections, the calculated charge form factor and charge radius of 3H are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data and modern nucleon-nucleon potential model calculations. Our result converges order by order in low-energy expansion and is also cutoff independent.

Constraining parity violation in gravity with measurements of neutron-star moments of inertia

Neutron stars are sensitive laboratories for testing general relativity, especially when considering deviations where velocities are relativistic and gravitational fields are strong. One such deviation is described by dynamical, Chern-Simons modified gravity, where the Einstein-Hilbert action is modified through the addition of the gravitational parity-violating Pontryagin density coupled to a field. This four-dimensional effective theory arises naturally both in perturbative and non-perturbative string theory, loop quantum gravity, and generic effective field theory expansions. We calculate here Chern-Simons modifications to the properties and gravitational fields of slowly spinning neutron stars. We find that the Chern-Simons correction affects only the gravitomagnetic sector of the metric to leading order, thus introducing modifications to the moment of inertia but not to the mass-radius relation. We show that an observational determination of the moment of inertia to an accuracy of 10%, as is expected from near-future observations of the double pulsar, will place a constraint on the Chern-Simons coupling constant of \xi^{1/4} < 5 km, which is at least three-orders of magnitude stronger than the previous strongest bound.

Universality and Leading Corrections in Few-Body Systems

A large two-body scattering length leads to universal behavior in few-body systems. In particular, the three-body system displays interesting features such as exact discrete scale invariance in the bound state spectrum in the limit of infinite scattering length. Here, I will discuss how an effective field theory (EFT) can be used to study these features and how the finite range of the underlying interaction impacts the bound state spectrum at first order in the EFT expansion.

αα scattering in halo effective field theory

We study the two-alpha-particle ( αα) system in an Effective Field Theory (EFT) for halo-like systems. We propose a power counting that incorporates the subtle interplay of strong and electromagnetic forces leading to a narrow resonance at an energy of about 0.1 MeV. We investigate the EFT expansion in detail, and compare its results with existing low-energy αα phase shifts and previously determined effective-range parameters. Good description of the data is obtained with a surprising amount of fine-tuning. This scenario can be viewed as an expansion around the limit where, when electromagnetic interactions are turned off, the 8Be ground state is at threshold and exhibits conformal invariance. We also discuss possible extensions to systems with more than two alpha particles.

Effective field theory for dilute fermions with pairing

Effective field theory (EFT) methods for a uniform system of fermions with short-range, natural interactions are extended to include pairing correlations, as part of a program to develop a systematic Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT) for medium and heavy nuclei. An effective action formalism for local composite operators leads to a free-energy functional that includes pairing by applying an inversion method order by order in the EFT expansion. A consistent renormalization scheme is demonstrated for the uniform system through next-to-leading order, which includes induced-interaction corrections to pairing.

Higher-order calculations of electron–deuteron scattering in nuclear effective theory

Motivated by recent advances in the application of effective field theory techniques to light nuclei we revisit the problem of electron–deuteron scattering in these approaches. Applying Weinberg's power counting for two-nucleon processes to this reaction leads, in the first instance, to an effective field theory expansion that does not converge for virtual photon momenta of order 300 MeV. However, here we show that this breakdown is not the result of an inability to describe deuteron physics: instead it results from the effective field theory's failure to describe the nucleon's isoscalar electromagnetic form factor once these momentum transfers are reached. Analyzing ratios of deuteron to (isoscalar) nucleon form factors within the effective field theory overcomes this difficulty. We show that when such an analysis is performed the effective theory expansion for deuteron physics converges well up to virtual photon momenta of order 700 MeV, and agrees with experimental data for the deuteron charge and quadrupole form factors over a similar range.

Density functional theory for a confined Fermi system with short-range interaction

Effective field theory (EFT) methods are applied to density functional theory (DFT) as part of a program to systematically go beyond mean-field approaches to finite many-body systems. A system of fermions with short-range, natural interactions and an external confining potential (e.g., fermionic atoms in an optical trap) serves as a laboratory for studying DFT/EFT. An effective action formalism leads to a Kohn–Sham DFT by applying an inversion method order-by-order in the EFT expansion parameter. Representative results showing the convergence of Kohn–Sham calculations at zero temperature in the local density approximation (LDA) are compared to Thomas–Fermi calculations and to power-counting estimates.

Long and short of nuclear effective field theory expansions

Nonperturbative effective field theory calculations for NN scattering seem to break down at rather low momenta. By examining several toy models, we clarify how effective field theory expansions can in general be used to properly separate long- and short-range effects. We find that one-pion exchange has a large effect on the scattering phase shift near poles in the amplitude, but otherwise can be treated perturbatively. Analysis of a toy model that reproduces 1S0 NN scattering data rather well suggests that failures of effective field theories for momenta above the pion mass can be due to short-range physics rather than the treatment of pion exchange. We discuss the implications this has for extending the applicability of effective field theories.

Next-to-next-to-leading-order calculation of two-nucleon scattering in an effective field theory

The effective field theory (EFT) for a toy model of nucleons interacting via a short range and a long range Yukawa potential is presented. The scattering amplitude in the 1S0 channel is calculated up to NNLO using KSW power counting scheme. A particular expansion of the amplitude about the pole at low (imaginary) momentum is used to derive matching conditions for the EFT couplings. In addition, after imposing constraints from a Renormalization Group analysis, there are no new free parameters in the amplitude at NNLO. Comparing the NNLO phase shifts to the full model we show that the EFT expansion is converging.

Perturbative calculation of the electromagnetic form factors of the deuteron

Making use of the effective field theory expansion recently developed by the authors, we compute the electromagnetic form factors of the deuteron analytically to next-to-leading order (NLO). The computation is rather simple, and involves calculating several Feynman diagrams, using dimensional regularization. The results agree well with data and indicate that the expansion is converging. They do not suffer from any ambiguities arising from off-shell versus on-shell amplitudes.