Transverse Asymmetry in Nucleon Deuteron Scattering in Pionless Effective Field Theory

Abstract

In this dissertation we applied the pionless effective field theory (EFTπ{ ) to low energy neu- tron deuteron elastic scattering process. We calculated some of the polarization observables in neutron deuteron scattering to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order, in particular the transverse asymmetry Ay. All of the previous calculations have the same characteristic fea- ture of under-predicting this observable, this is known as the Ay-puzzle. At this order of the EFTπ{ new two-body P-wave interaction terms enter into the Lagrangian. This interaction terms give crucial contributions to the Ay observable. By varying the interaction coefficients within the allowed error estimates of the EFTπ{ we find results that at this order are consis- tent with the experimental data. Our conclusion is that the Ay-puzzle is likely to be solved within the next few orders of the EFTπ{ . Other observables in neutron-deuteron scattering process are also calculated and are with a good agreement with the experimental data.