Central and tensor components of three-nucleon forces in low-energy proton-deuteron scattering

Abstract

Contributions of three-nucleon forces (3NF) to proton-deuteron scattering observables at energies below the deuteron breakup threshold are studied by solving the Faddeev equation that includes the Coulomb interaction. At E_p=3.0 MeV, we find that the central part of a two-pion exchange 3NF removes the discrepancy between measured cross sections and the calculated ones by two-nucleon forces, and improves the agreement with T_{22} experimental data. However, the tensor part of the 3NF fails in reproducing data of the analyzing power T_{21} by giving worse agreement between the measured and the calculated. Detailed examinations of scattering amplitudes suggest that a P-wave contribution in spin quartet tensor amplitudes has unsuitable sign for reproducing the T_{21} data.