Perturbative Pions and the Effective Range Expansion

Finite-range regularised (FRR) chiral effective field theory is presented in the context of approximation schemes ubiquitous in modern lattice QCD calculations. Using FRR techniques, the power-counting regime (PCR) of chiral perturbation theory can be estimated. To fourth-order in the expansion at the 1% tolerance level, we find m_\pi < 180 MeV for the PCR, extending only a small distance beyond the physical pion mass.

In this article I summarize recent progress in the effective field theory approach to low energy nuclear systems, with a focus on the power counting issue. In the pionless sector, where the power counting is quite well understood at the nucleon-nucleon (NN) level, I discuss some recent developments toward few- and many-body calculations. In the pionful sector, I focus on the actively debated issue of power counting in the NN sector and some recent developments toward a model-...

I discuss recent progress in our understanding of the pi pi scattering amplitude at low energy thanks to the combined use of chiral perturbation theory and dispersion relations. I also comment on the criticism raised by Pelaez and Yndurain on this work.

Effective field theory provides a powerful framework to exploit a separation of scales in physical systems. In these lectures, we discuss some general aspects of effective field theories and their application to few-body physics. In particular, we consider an effective field theory for non-relativistic particles with resonant short-range interactions where certain parts of the interaction need to be treated nonperturbatively. As an application, we discuss the so-called pionle...

Ever since quantum field theory was first applied to the derivation of nuclear forces in the mid-20th century, the renormalization of pion exchange with realistic couplings has presented a challenge. The implementation of effective field theories (EFTs) in the 1990s promised a solution to this problem but unexpected obstacles were encountered. The response of the nuclear community has been to focus on "chiral potentials" with regulators chosen to produce a good description of...

Using our present knowledge on effective hadronic theories, short-distance QCD information, the $1/N_C$ expansion, analyticity and unitarity, we derive an expression for the pion form factor, in terms of $m_\pi, m_K, M_\rho$ and $f_\pi$. This parameter-free prediction provides a surprisingly good description of the experimental data up to energies of the order of 1 GeV.

Novel techniques are presented, which identify the power-counting regime (PCR) of chiral effective field theory, and allow the use of lattice quantum chromodynamics results that extend outside the PCR. By analyzing the renormalization of low-energy coefficients of the chiral expansion of the nucleon mass, the existence of an optimal regularization scale is realized. The techniques developed for the nucleon mass renormalization are then applied to a test case: performing a chi...

The pseudoscalar particles pions, kaons and the $\eta$-particle are considerably lighter than the other hadrons such as protons or neutrons. Their lightness was understood as a consequence of approximate chiral symmetry breaking. This led to current algebra, a way to express the relations imposed by the symmetry breaking. It was realized by Weinberg that because of their low mass, it is possible to formulate a purely pionic (effective) field theory at experimental energies, w...

We give a brief review of the theoretical description of low energy pion-pion scattering by the combined use of Chiral Perturbation Theory and Roy equations, an update of the Regge parametrization of $\pi\pi$ cross sections at high energies, and a short discussion of the scalar radius of the pion.

These are the proceedings of the workshop on ``Effective Field Theories of QCD'' held at the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, Bad Honnef, Germany from November 26 to 30, 2001. The workshop concentrated on Chiral Perturbation Theory in its various settings, its relations with lattice QCD and dispersion theory and the use of effective field theories in systems with one, two or more nucleons as well as at high baryon densities. Included are a ...