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Title: X 17 boson and the H 3 ( p , e+ e ) He 4 and He 3 ( n , e+ e ) He 4 processes: A theoretical analysis

Journal Article · · Physical Review C
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [1];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. National Inst. of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Pisa (Italy)
  2. Univ. of Trento (Italy); National Inst. of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Povo-Trento (Italy). Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA)
  3. University of Salento, Lecce (Italy); National Inst. of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Lecce (Italy)
  4. National Inst. of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Rome (Italy)
  5. National Inst. of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Pisa (Italy); Univ. of Pisa (Italy)
  6. Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (United States); Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA (United States)

The present work deals with e+e pair production in the four-nucleon system. We first analyze the process as a purely electromagnetic one in the context of a state-of-the-art approach to nuclear strong-interaction dynamics and nuclear electromagnetic currents, derived from chiral effective field theory (χEFT) . Next, we examine how the exchange of a hypothetical low-mass boson would impact the cross section for such a process. We consider several possibilities, that this boson is either a scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, or axial particle. The ab initio calculations use exact hyperspherical-harmonics methods to describe the bound state and low-energy spectrum of the A = 4 continuum, and they fully account for initial state interaction effects in the 3 + 1 clusters. While electromagnetic interactions are treated to high orders in the chiral expansion, the interactions of the hypothetical boson with nucleons are modeled in leading-order χEFT (albeit, in some instances, selected subleading contributions are also accounted for). We also provide an overview of possible future experiments probing pair production in the A = 4 system at a number of candidate facilities.

Research Organization:
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-06OR23177
OSTI ID:
1839217
Report Number(s):
JLAB-THY--21-3351; DOE/OR/23177-5170; arXiv:2104.07808; DE-AC05-06OR23177
Journal Information:
Physical Review C, Journal Name: Physical Review C Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 105; ISSN 2469-9985
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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