Electromagnetic properties of the Beryllium-11 nucleus in Halo EFT

D.R. Phillips^1,2a and H.-W. Hammer²

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA
² Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik and Bethe Center for Theoretical Physics, Universität Bonn, D-53115, Bonn, Germany

^a e-mail: phillips@phy.ohiou.edu

Published online: 12 April 2010

Abstract

We compute electromagnetic properties of the Beryllium-11 nucleus using an effective field theory that exploits the separation of scales in this halo system. We fix the parameters of the EFT from measured data on levels and scattering lengths in the ¹⁰Be plus neutron system. We then obtain predictions for the B(E1) strength of the 1/2⁺ to 1/2⁻ transition in the ¹¹Be nucleus. We also compute the charge radius of the ground state of ¹¹Be. Agreement with experiment within the expected accuracy of a leading-order computation in this EFT is obtained. We also indicate how higher-order corrections that affect both s-wave and p-wave 10 Be-neutron interactions will affect our results.