Eur. Phys. J. A (2012) 48: 38
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2012-12038-1

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Exploratory investigation of nucleon-nucleon interactions using Euclidean Monte Carlo simulations

¹ Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, D-22603, Hamburg, Germany
² HISKP (Theorie), Universität Bonn, Nussallee 14-16, D-53115, Bonn, Germany

^* e-mail: curbach@gmx.de

Received: 1 November 2011
Revised: 25 January 2012
Accepted: 27 February 2012
Published online: 27 March 2012

Abstract

We present an exploratory study of chiral effective theories of nuclei with methods adopted from lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD). We show that the simulations in the Euclidean path integral approach are feasible and that we can determine the energy of the two-nucleon state. This opens up the possibility to determine in future simulations nucleon phase shifts by varying the parameters and the simulated volumes. The physical cut-off of the theory is realised by blocking of the lattice fields. By keeping the block size fixed in physical units the lattice cut-off (i.e. the lattice spacing) can be freely changed. This offers an effective way for controlling lattice artefacts.