Radiation pions in two-nucleon effective field theory

Abstract

For interactions involving two or more nucleons it is useful to divide pions into three classes: potential, radiation, and soft. The momentum threshold for the production of radiation pions is $Q_r = \sqrt{M_N m_\pi}$. We show that radiation pions can be included systematically with a power counting in $Q_r$. The leading order radiation pion graphs which contribute to NN scattering are evaluated in the PDS and OS renormalization schemes and are found to give a small contribution. The power counting for soft pion contributions is also discussed.