Nuclear electromagnetic currents to fourth order in chiral effective field theory

Abstract

Recently, we have shown that the continuity equation for the nuclear vector and axial current operators acquires additional terms if the latter depend on the energy transfer. We analyze in detail the electromagnetic single-nucleon four-current operators and verify the validity of the modified continuity equation for all one- and two-nucleon contributions up to fourth order in the chiral expansion. We also derive, for the first time, the leading contribution to the three-nucleon charge operator which appears at this order. Our study completes the derivation of the electroweak nuclear currents to fourth order in the chiral expansion.