Delta Effects in Pion-Nucleon Scattering and the Strength of the Two-Pion-Exchange Three-Nucleon Interaction

Abstract

We consider the relationship between P-wave pi-N scattering and the strength of the P-wave two-pion-exchange three-nucleon interaction (TPE3NI). We explain why effective theories that do not contain the delta resonance as an explicit degree of freedom tend to overestimate the strength of the TPE3NI. The overestimation can be remedied by higher-order terms in these ``delta-less'' theories, but such terms are not yet included in state-of-the-art chiral EFT calculations of the nuclear force. This suggests that these calculations can only predict the strength of the TPE3NI to an accuracy of +/-25%.