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alpha-alpha Scattering in Halo Effective Field Theory

Nuclear Theory 2008-11-26 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We study the two-alpha-particle (alpha-alpha) 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 alpha-alpha 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 Be-8 ground state is at threshold and exhibits conformal invariance. We also discuss possible extensions to systems with more than two alpha particles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0802.3426,
  title  = {alpha-alpha Scattering in Halo Effective Field Theory},
  author = {R. Higa and H. -W. Hammer and U. van Kolck},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0802.3426},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

19 pages, 2 figures, published version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:15:18.026Z