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# Irreducible pionic effects in nucleon-deuteron scattering below 20 MeV

## I Introduction

Three-nucleon forces as truly genuine interactions are not made by nature . Rather, they are artifacts of theoreticians who decided to treat nuclear dynamics within a restricted Hilbert space.

A sufficiently detailed picture for most low- and intermediate-energy phenomena in nuclear dynamics should involve as constituents the nucleons, isobars and mesons (pions and heavier bosons). In doing so, all subnucleonic degrees of freedom, like quarks and gluons, are transformed into the notion of collective motion of hadronic clusters, which correspond to baryons and mesons. Such a system does not need the concept of two-, three-, and many-nucleon forces, since the mechanisms of meson emission and absorption, the ones that mediate the nuclear interactions, appear in the theory explicitly.

For systems with more than two nucleons, not all the relevant hadronic degrees of freedom can be traced back explicitly in practical calculations, and one is faced with the problem to restrict the Hilbert space. This restriction generates three- (or many-) nucleon forces. And, most importantly, three-nucleon forces of different structure and of different physical interpretation arise depending on the different theoretical strategies which have been adopted to restrict the original hadronic system into the simplified, more tractable, Hilbert space of few-nucleon systems.

A paradigmatic example that clarifies this situation is the one discussed in Ref.  where two different strategies for describing the three-nucleon force are considered. Both approaches make the assumption that meson-exchange phenomena occur instantaneously and hence they both ignore any additional mesonic aspects brought in by the dynamics of the coupled meson-baryon system. The difference between the two considered approaches is that one of the two treats explicitly the non-nucleonic degree of freedom of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobar, thereby allowing the isobar to propagate over a finite time interval, while the other deals with nucleonic degrees of freedom only (the standard nuclear theory approach) which implies that one has to consider effective three-nucleon interactions explicitly, including those effective contributions for not allowing the isobar to propagate freely into the system. Following the first strategy, one ends up dealing with effective three-nucleon force (3$`N`$$`F`$) diagrams which are energy dependent due to the isobar propagation, and in addition one finds that, for consistency, also the two-nucleon interaction is modified in an energy dependent way because of the the presence of the third nucleon. The two-nucleon interaction in particular is modified in those contributions where an intermediate isobar propagation occurs, since the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is allowed to adjust to the nuclear medium by the dynamical approach. This secondary effect on the 2$`N`$ force (sometimes called “dispersive 2$`N`$ effect”) counteracts the contribution due to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-mediated 2$`\pi `$-exchange 3$`N`$$`F`$, and the physical interpretation of its origin is well understood in the approach with explicit $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobars.

In contrast, the second strategy uses two- and three-nucleon interactions which are not allowed to adjust to the surrounding nuclear medium, because of the freezing of all the non nucleonic degrees of freedom. Conceptually, then it is very difficult to explain the origin of the dispersive 2$`N`$ counter-terms, and the approach is amended to revive at least part of such contributions in an averaged way by introducing effective 3$`N`$$`F`$ counterterms of short-range type.

This paradigmatic example suggests that in the standard “few-nucleon” approach, with its restricted Hilbert space consisting of nucleons only, some additional 3$`N`$$`F`$-like diagram could be missing and the most viable way to reveal these new terms is to work-out the nuclear dynamics starting from an enlarged space where the system has to be treated dynamically also in presence of mesons, especially of the pionic degrees of freedom. If the origin of the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effects is due to the restriction to the nucleonic Hilbert space, then we have to consider carefully how we theoretically reach this description, in order to pin-down the 3$`N`$$`F`$ contributions. This is one lesson we must learn from the dynamical treatment of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobar in the three-nucleon system.

The first non-nucleonic ingredient that plays a crucial role for nuclear systems is the pion, and it is natural to aim at a theoretical formulation that couples dynamically this meson to the nucleonic degrees of freedom. Such a formulation would then provide a combined description of nuclear systems at low- and intermediate energies. Pions are produced indeed and observed by experiments at intermediate energies and their dynamical role in these nuclear systems can hardly be ignored.

With two-nucleon systems, various approaches to include the effects of a dynamical pion in a non-perturbative fashion have been developed and analyzed , and many theoretical problems like relativistic aspects, or the proper treatment of the nucleon renormalization effects, or finally the consistent treatment of meson-exchange diagrams related by different time orderings, have been extensively discussed . Not all these problems have been solved in a systematic manner since these $`\pi `$$`NN`$ approaches aim to include just one dynamical pion in the theory, thus ruling out more complex situations with multipionic intermediate states. Stated in other words, these techniques allow to include one single dynamical pion in the 2$`N`$ system, but then one has to face the conceptual problems arising because the states with more than one pion at the same time are ruled out from the dynamical equations. Still, in spite of these problems, the generalization of such type of approaches to the three-nucleon system allows to reveal possible new dynamical aspects of the pion that cannot be observed by freezing out from the very beginning all mesonic degrees of freedom, into instantaneous meson-exchange potentials.

The dynamical equations for the coupled $`NN`$-$`\pi `$$`NN`$ problem have been generalized to the 3$`N`$ system in Ref. . The method is based on the rigorous Yakubovski-Grassberger-Sandhas  four-body theory, extended to the $`\pi `$$`NNN`$ system with an absorbable pion. Previously, this problem has been analyzed with few-body techniques for quite a few years . The solution of the resulting set of 21$`\times `$21 coupled equations represents a formidable task, and for practical reasons an approximation scheme to reduce the complexity of the original equations to an approximated but more tractable form has been developed . The approximation scheme builds up the complete dynamical solution starting from the zeroth-order solution, given by the standard quantum-mechanical Alt-Grassberger-Sandhas (AGS) equation . The strategy that emerges from this approximation scheme consists in treating the normal 2$`N`$ correlations “exactly” via Faddeev-like methods, while the additional mesonic aspects which cannot be adequately described by a conventional 2$`N`$ potential have to be incorporated directly into the dynamical equation as corrections (i.e. through an underlying perturbative-iterative expansion). This is consistent with the findings of the approaches based on chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) which predict that 3$`N`$$`F`$ effects are small .

To the lowest order, the approximation scheme ends up with three different types of irreducible 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagrams which have to be incorporated in the dynamical equations according to the prescriptions given in Ref. . Clearly, all three types of diagrams are related to specific aspects of the pion dynamics which cannot be incorporated in the description of a purely nucleonic system interacting through a pair-wise potential.

Amongst the three types of diagrams, one can easily recognize the extensively studied 2$`\pi `$-3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram. This diagram has led to various models of 3$`N`$ potential amongst which we recall two historical representations, Tucson-Melbourne  and Brasil . These potentials use the $`\pi `$$`NN`$ vertices and the off-shell extrapolated $`\pi `$$`N`$ amplitudes as inputs. It is important to observe that in the construction of these potentials certain diagrams have to be subtracted explicitly, to avoid double countings. The other two types of diagrams that emerge at the lowest order involve the intermediate formation of a 2$`N`$ correlation while one pion is being exchanged, and finally the intermediate formation of a 3$`N`$ correlation, during the exchange process. The last type of diagram has been discussed in the previous literature only occasionally , and to our knowledge, its effect has not yet been estimated quantitatively in realistic situations, although its relevance might not be so important because the probability that a full 3$`N`$ correlation is formed during the meson-exchange process is expected to be small.

The diagram involving the 2$`N`$ correlation during a pion-exchange process has been discussed in Ref. , and the consequent appearance of an irreducible 3$`N`$ operator with tensor-like structure has also been observed therein (see also Refs. ). In the construction of this operator, certain classes of subdiagrams have to be subtracted, because of the presence of a cancellation effect which has been observed in the literature quite a few years ago . The connection between the nature of these cancellations and their implications to the ChPT approach has been discussed in Ref. . A similar cancellation effect has been also observed - in leading order - in effective nuclear forces based on chiral lagrangians and constructed with the method of unitary transformation . As has been discussed in Refs. , however, such subtraction leads to a cancellation effect which is only partial if the original 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram has been derived within a dynamical approach which leads to an energy dependent 3$`N`$$`F`$-like operator, and where the meson propagates for a sufficiently extended time to allow the intermediate formation of a correlated 2$`N`$ pair. That might correspond to the inclusion of a series of non-vanishing higher-order terms in the chiral expansion. In the standard approach which uses instantaneous two- and three-nucleon interactions, the freezing out of the mesonic degrees of freedom does not contemplate the occurrence of such a 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect. This situation presents interesting similarities with respect to that already encountered with the dispersive 2$`N`$ counter-terms, which are properly taken into account only when the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ degrees of freedom are treated explicitly in the dynamical equation.

In Ref. , the consequences of considering this type of one-pion-exchange 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram (OPE-3NF) in the 3$`N`$ equation have been studied. It was shown that this diagram has the potential to modify considerably the vector analyzing powers $`A_y`$ without affecting appreciably the differential cross section, and could therefore solve the long standing puzzle of the vector analyzing powers in nucleon-deuteron scattering below 30 MeV. On the other hand, other, alternative explanations have been suggested in the literature. Effective three-nucleon potentials constructed with a combination of short-range and pion-range terms have been considered first under the point of view of the meson-exchange picture , and later reconsidered under the framework of chiral perturbation theory , since a non-negligible role for these terms is predicted. A phenomenological spin-orbit three-body operator has also been introduced  in order to improve the vector analyzing powers. Another explanation  advocates the Brown-Rho scaling-with-density hypothesis  in the three-nucleon system. Because of this scaling, the 2$`N`$ potential has been modified specifically in the triplet P waves by reducing the scalar- and vector-meson masses to approximately 95% of their free-space value, thereby enhancing the spin-orbit term of the density-dependent 2$`N`$ potential with respect to free space. This selective dependence of the $`A_y`$ puzzle on the triplet P-waves of the 2$`N`$ force suggested also that modern phase-shift analysis might have not yet been settled to the correct parameters for these states in the low-energy domain . But it has also been argued  that the required changes of the free-space 2$`N`$ potential have to be exceedingly drastic for the one-pion-exchange contribution, which on the contrary is well established.

In the present paper, we have extended the study of Ref.  about the irreducible pionic effect implied by the OPE-3NF diagram by considering such an effect with three different 2$`N`$ potentials. In all cases we were able to demonstrate that this irreducible pionic effect has the potential to solve the puzzle for the low-energy vector analyzing powers with negligible effects for the differential cross sections and minor effects for the other spin observables. We have also widened the comparison with experimental data by including differential cross-sections, vector and tensor analyzing powers, and spin-transfer coefficients at various energies below 20 MeV.

The basic structure of the OPE-3NF diagram is recalled in Sect.II. Comparison between theory and experiments is made in Sect. III. Conclusions are derived in Sect. IV.

## II Theory

Following Refs. , we have incorporated directly into the Faddeev-AGS three-nucleon equation the irreducible effects generated by the one-pion-exchange mechanism in presence of a nucleon-nucleon correlation. The detailed expression has been discussed previously in Ref. . It is reported here for convenience:

$`V_3^{3N}(𝐩,𝐪,𝐩^{},𝐪^{};E)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_{\pi NN}^2(Q)}{m_\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^3}}`$ (5)
$`\times \left[{\displaystyle \frac{(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟏}𝐐)(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟑}𝐐)(𝝉_\mathrm{𝟏}𝝉_\mathrm{𝟑})+(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟐}𝐐)(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟑}𝐐)(𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}𝝉_\mathrm{𝟑})}{\omega _\pi ^2}}\right]`$
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{t}_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{};E\frac{q^2}{2\nu }m_\pi )}{2m_\pi }}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{f_{\pi NN}^2(Q)}{m_\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{t}_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{};E\frac{q_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{2\nu }m_\pi )}{2m_\pi }}`$
$`\times \left[{\displaystyle \frac{(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟏}𝐐)(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟑}𝐐)(𝝉_\mathrm{𝟏}𝝉_\mathrm{𝟑})+(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟐}𝐐)(𝝈_\mathrm{𝟑}𝐐)(𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}𝝉_\mathrm{𝟑})}{\omega _\pi ^2}}\right].`$
The momenta $`𝐩,𝐪`$ represent respectively the Jacobi coordinates of the pair “$`1`$$`2`$”, and spectator “$`3`$”, while $`E`$ is the 3$`N`$ energy. The pion-nucleon coupling constant is selected by the underlying 2$`N`$ potential that is considered; for instance, for the Paris and Bonn potentials, we have used the “traditional” value $`f_{\pi NN}^2/(4\pi )`$ = 0.078, while for the newer CD Bonn potential () we have consistently used the more recent determinations by the Nijmegen  and VPI  group. Same considerations have been applied for the pion-nucleon form factor, since we have employed the same standard functions (and also with the same parameters) that have been employed at the level of the 2$`N`$ potentials:

$$f_{\pi NN}(Q)=f_{\pi NN}\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi ^2m_\pi ^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi ^2+Q^2}.$$
(6)
The transferred momentum $`𝐐=𝐪^{}𝐪`$ enters also in $`\omega _\pi =\sqrt{m_\pi ^2+Q^2}`$. $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{ij}`$ denotes the subtracted $`t`$ matrix between nucleons $`1`$ and $`2`$, defined according to the prescription

$$\stackrel{~}{t}_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{};Z)=c(E)t_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{};Z)v_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{}).$$
(7)
We have considered in addition another possible type of subtraction

$$\stackrel{~}{t}_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{};Z)=c(E)t_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{};Z)t_{12}(𝐩,𝐩^{};\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}),$$
(8)
where the subtraction parameter $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ has been fixed around 1.5 GeV. Other details can be found in Refs.. The factor $`c(Z)`$ is an adjustable parameter and serves to control the cancellation between the two terms. Ideally, this factor should be approximately one if the 2$`N`$ $`t`$ matrix could be reliably extrapolated off-shell down to $`Z160`$ MeV. However, the existing 2$`N`$ potentials cannot guarantee the extrapolation at such negative energies. Moreover, additional approximations and simplifications entered in the determination of the expression for $`V_3^{3N}`$, as discussed in Ref. . For these reasons, we introduced $`c(Z)`$ as adjustable parameter, with the constrain that at higher energies in $`nd`$ scattering, this factor should move towards one, because the 2$`N`$ $`t`$ matrix entering in $`V_3^{3N}`$ is then calculated at energies higher than $`160`$ MeV, that is, less far off shell. The use of the second type of subtraction, Eq. 8, has been introduced in the case of the Paris potential because this potential is not OBE-like (one-boson-exchange). In this case, the subtraction of the meson-exchange diagrams involved in the cancellation is therefore not feasible with Eq. 7. On the other hand Eq. 8 tends to enhance the cancellation effects with respect to Eq. 7, and therefore it is to be expected that the parameter governing the cancellation in Eq. 8 has to compensate this effect.

The irreducible pionic effect described by Eq. 5 can be incorporated in the scattering equation in a convenient way if the $`2N`$ input potential is of finite rank. For a rank one (separable) case, the $`2N`$ $`t`$ matrix takes the expression $`t=|g_1\tau g_1|`$, and the (anti)symmetrized AGS equation can be reinterpreted as an effective two-body multichannel integral equation in one intercluster momentum variable,

$$X_{11}=Z_{11}+Z_{11}\tau X_{11},$$
(9)
with the driving term calculated as follows

$$Z_{11}=g_1|G_0P|g_1+g_1|G_0V_1^{3N}G_0|g_1.$$
(10)
The first contribution represents the standard AGS driving term, with $`G_0`$ and $`P`$ being the free Green’s function and the cyclic/anti-cyclic permutator, respectively, while the second expression takes into account the effects of the irreducible $`3N`$ diagram discussed above. The procedure is consistent with the formalism developed in Ref. to include irreducible pionic effects as corrections in the Faddeev-AGS equation. Since the formalism is based on the systematic 4-body approach of Ref. , it allows to include additional (high-order) classes of irreducible diagrams in subsequent steps.

Neutron-deuteron scattering observables below 20 MeV have been calculated using the finite-rank representation of realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials, known as PEST, BBEST, and CDBEST potentials . These provide accurate representation of the nucleon-nucleon transition matrix for the Paris , Bonn $`B`$ , and CD-Bonn  potentials and are based upon the Ernst-Shakin-Thaler (EST) method  for generating the finite-rank expressions of the transition matrices and/or potentials. Benchmark calculations  for scattering and bound-state regime have demonstrated that with this method it is possible to solve accurately the Faddeev-AGS scattering equations, and to obtain results comparable (with errors of 1% or less) to those obtained from a direct solution of the 2-dimensional Faddeev equations (where the original 2$`N`$ potential is used as input). The results shown in the next section have been calculated with the 2$`N`$ potentials acting in the $`j2`$ states, and listed in Tab. I. For each 2$`N`$ potential and state, the table also reports the rank of the separable expansion used.

Finally, the calculations reported herein have been performed including all 3$`N`$ states with total angular momenta up to $`J=19/2`$, for both odd and even parities.

## III results

We first compare the results of our calculations with experimental data taken with incident neutrons at 3 MeV. At this energy the process is below the deuteron break-up threshold. The experimental data shown in Fig. 1 are taken from Refs.  and  for the differential cross-section and the neutron analyzing power, respectively. The figure compares the calculations obtained with the CD-Bonn, Bonn $`B`$, and Paris potential (dashed, dot-dashed, and dotted lines, respectively) with those obtained when adding consistently the OPE-3NF effect as discussed in the previous section. By adjusting the parameter in Eq. 7 (or in Eq. 8 for the Paris potential), we obtain for each considered potential the required modifications for the proper reproduction of the analyzing power without ruining the description of the differential cross section. For the Bonn $`B`$ and CD-Bonn potentials the actual values of the parameter have been reported in Tab. II. (For the Paris case the parameter has been set to 0.385).

For all three potentials the result of the calculations including the OPE-3NF effect is contained in the thick solid line. For the differential cross-section, there is a very tiny effect or tendency to reduce the differential cross-section in both the forward and backward direction, however, such an effect can hardly be perceived in the figure.

Then, we compare our results with other polarization observables, taken at comparable energies. To do so, we consider the complete set of deuteron analyzing power measurements in deuteron-proton scattering at 8 MeV, Ref. . The measurements at this energy (for incident deuterons) compares to an equivalent energy of 4 MeV for the case of incident protons. However, we do not include Coulomb corrections in our calculations. As minimal Coulomb correction, we consider exclusively the additional loss of kinetic energy of the proton while approaching the electric field of the deuteron . This loss amounts to about $`0.7`$ MeV and hence we compare the experimental data of Ref.  with theoretical results obtained with incident neutrons of 3.3 MeV. We observe that the Coulomb slow-down effect has been observed experimentally for $`A_y`$ and not for the deuteron analyzing powers, since there are no experimental neutron data here. However, a recent calculation  (with and without Coulomb force) suggests that the same effect holds also for these observables.

The lower panel of Fig. 2 considers the deuteron vector analyzing power $`iT_{11}`$. Again, we observe that the standard two-nucleon calculations without 3$`N`$$`F`$ effects (thin lines) underpredict this observable, while the inclusion of the OPE-3NF effect provides the necessary modifications (thick lines) suggested by the data. Conventions for the lines are the same as in the previous figure, namely, dashed, dot-dashed, and dotted lines, describe calculations with CD-Bonn, Bonn $`B`$, and Paris Potentials, respectively. We observe that the inclusion of the OPE-3NF effect for the Bonn $`B`$ potential provides the largest effect for $`iT_{11}`$, while for the two other potentials the results with the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect are rather similar. This is at variance with respect to the case without 3$`N`$$`F`$ effects, where the CD-Bonn potential alone provides a substantially higher $`iT_{11}`$ with respect to the Paris and Bonn $`B`$ cases. Aside for the substantial increase of this observable provided by the OPE-3NF effect, it is difficult to draw any additional conclusions by comparison with experimental data because of the presence of the perturbation introduced by the Coulomb field, which at these energies modifies sensibly the shape of this observable not only in the most forward direction.

The upper panel of Fig. 2 considers the deuteron tensor analyzing power, $`T_{22}`$. Here the modification introduced by the OPE-3NF are very small and cannot be perceived in the figure, with the exception of the Bonn $`B`$ case, where a slight reduction of the dip peaked around 100<sup>o</sup> can be observed. A similar situation is suggested for the other two deuteron tensor analyzing powers, $`T_{20}`$ and $`T_{21}`$, shown respectively in the upper and lower panel of Fig. 3. The introduction of the OPE-3NF effect introduces very slight modifications also in these two observables. Again we observe that with the inclusion of this 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect the Paris and CD-Bonn results become more similar than they were before. Also with the Bonn $`B`$ potential the modifications are small, although one can clearly perceive for $`T_{20}`$ that the dip at 100<sup>o</sup> and the peak in the backward direction are slightly more pronounced. Same situation occurs for the dip at $`80^o`$ for $`T_{21}`$. Comparison with data shows that at these energies and for these observables no definite conclusions can be drawn without an accurate inclusion of the Coulomb field, or without a comparison with accurate measurements involving neutron-deuteron scattering. The figure also suggests that with proper inclusion of Coulomb modifications in the theory and/or accurate neutron-deuteron measurements one could actually observe the phenomenological effects due to this 3$`N`$$`F`$-like contribution.

We have repeated the same analysis at 8.5 MeV. Fig. 4 exhibits that basically the same description found at 3 MeV holds also at this energy. The 3$`N`$$`F`$ mechanism under scrutiny is capable to raise the neutron-deuteron $`A_y`$ in order to match the experimental data without any sensible modification of the corresponding differential cross section. As a minor effect, also at this energy we can observe a reduction of the cross-section in the forward and backward directions, for both Bonn $`B`$ and CD-Bonn potentials, but in both cases the effect is hardly perceptible in the figure. The cross-section data have been extracted from Ref.  (open circles) and Ref.  (open triangles) while the polarization data have been taken from Ref. .

In Figs. 5 and 6 we have compared “$`n`$$`d`$” theoretical results with “$`p`$$`d`$” data for the deuteron analyzing powers. For the reasons explained above we compared results obtained at 8.3 MeV (for incident neutron energy) with data taken at 18 MeV (incident deuterons) . The lower panel of Fig. 5 shows that when including the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect the increase of $`iT_{11}`$ is about of the right size for both potentials; however one observes also an inversion of the peaks, since, when including the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect, the Bonn $`B`$ peak is higher than the CD-Bonn one, while without 3$`N`$$`F`$ the CD-Bonn peak is higher. The same thing was occurring also at lower energy.

For the deuteron tensor analyzing powers, $`T_{22}`$ (upper panel of Fig. 5), $`T_{20}`$ and $`T_{21}`$ (upper and lower panels of Fig. 6, respectively), we observe that the overall shape of the angular distributions is better reproduced than at 4 MeV, indicating that the effects of Coulomb distortions are less important here (with the exception of the data in the forward direction), and that the modifications introduced by the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effects are in general of minor entity with respect to those observed for the vector analyzing powers. A closer inspection, however, reveals that while the OPE-3NF effects are very small for $`T_{22}`$ for both CD-Bonn and Bonn $`B`$ potentials, the situation is different for the other two deuteron tensor observables, where the effects of this 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram can indeed be observed and are about of the same size of the difference between the two potentials themselves. For $`T_{20}`$ in particular, the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect provides a remarkable improvement of the dip at $`110^o`$ in the case of the Bonn $`B`$ potential, while for the case of the CD-Bonn potential the situation is basically unchanged. For $`T_{21}`$ again the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect remarkably improves the description in the Bonn $`B`$ case (especially at the dip around $`90^o`$), while for the case of the CD-Bonn potential the situation is reversed.

Then, we have considered how the situation evolves at 12 MeV. Again we find that the introduction of these irreducible pionic effects are able to increase significantly $`A_y`$ (lower panel of Fig. 7) for both potentials without affecting appreciably the differential cross-section (upper panel of Fig. 7). As the energy increases, it becomes evident that the introduction of these 3$`N`$$`F`$-like effects provide a good description of $`A_y`$ in both hemispheres. To obtain this, the corrections have to operate differently in the two directions, with a substantial increase of the analyzing power in the backward hemisphere, where the peak evolves, and at the same time with a slight suppression of $`A_y`$ in the forward hemisphere, especially for the Bonn $`B`$ potential. Clearly, these irreducible pionic effects have the ability to achieve both goals. In Figs. 8 and 9 we compare $`p`$$`d`$ data measured at the proton-equivalent energy of 12 MeV with $`n`$$`d`$ calculations at 11.3 MeV (for consistency with the Coulomb slow-down assumption). For both potentials, the 3$`N`$$`F`$-like effects increase $`iT_{11}`$ significantly in the backward hemishere and suppress slightly the observable at forward angles. Comparison with experimental data suggest that these modifications are correct in both directions, although great caution has to be exercised when comparing $`n`$$`d`$ calculation with $`p`$$`d`$ data. Around the peak at backward angles we observe also a quite large increase for the case of the Bonn $`B`$ potential, while the effect is smaller for the CD-Bonn case. This last feature is similar to what has been observed at lower energy.

The 3$`N`$$`F`$-like effects have a very minor impact on $`T_{22}`$, also at 12 MeV (upper panel of Fig. 8), while it is evident that this observable is more sensitive to the choice of the underlying 2$`N`$ potential, and in absence of other additional contributions, we might conclude that the data seem to favor more the BBEST calculation, with respect to the CD-BEST results.

In Fig. 9 we consider the remaining two tensor analyzing powers, $`T_{20}`$ (upper panel) and $`T_{21}`$ (lower panel). $`T_{20}`$ exhibits an interesting evolution since the results for the BBEST + OPE-3NF case are significantly different around 110<sup>o</sup> than the other cases, and they are remarkably close to the experimental data. An interesting situation occurs also for $`T_{21}`$ around 100<sup>o</sup> where the BEST + OPE-3NF calculation are appreciably more negative than the other calculations considered in the figure. We calculated that this same situation evolves also at higher energies (e.g., 18-20 MeV). Unfortunately, no experimental data have been found for $`T_{21}`$ in this energy range, and new measurements for $`T_{21}`$ would be very useful in the range of 10-20 MeV.

As has been explained in Refs. , one basic aspect of the irreducible pionic effects which generate the 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram included in our calculation develops as a consequence of an “imperfect” cancellation with respect to the mesonic retardation contributions. Since in our study we employ realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials, we observe that they are heavily based on fitting procedures of experimental nucleon-nucleon data and are therefore a sort of “black boxes” with respect to the variety and structure of meson-exchange diagrams included, except probably the OPE term, since only the longest range of the nuclear force is well established. It should therefore not be a surprise that for each 2$`N`$ potential we included in the corresponding 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram a phenomenological parameter that governs the level of cancellation against meson retardation effects. In the approach we developed in Ref.  we used the experimental value of $`A_y`$ at the peak to actually fix this parameter. Then, it is obviously of interest to study how this parameter evolves with energy. For this reason we considered the wealth of $`p`$$`d`$ experimental data for $`A_y`$ measured at 12, 14, 16, and 18 MeV (Ref. ) and compared these data with $`n`$$`d`$ calculations at 11.3, 13.3, 15.3, and 17.3 MeV, respectively, finding that we could reproduce how the peak evolves with a perfectly linear dependence of the parameter governing the cancellation of the 3$`N`$$`F`$.

The situation is shown in Figs. 10 and 11 for the Bonn $`B`$ and CD-Bonn potentials. In the two figures, the upper panel compares data with results taken without 3$`N`$$`F`$, while the results in the lower panel include 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect. Inclusion of the OPE-3NF effect provides very good results for the Bonn $`B`$ potential, not only in the region of the peak (around $`130^o`$ MeV), but also in the region around 100<sup>o</sup> where the dip evolves. For the CD-Bonn potential the situation is similarly satisfactorily for the evolution of the $`A_y`$ peak while the evolution of the dip at lower angles is fair but not optimal. For both potentials, we report in Tab. II the value of the parameter and the corresponding energy we have employed in calculating this 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect.

In this same energy range, we focus attention on the nucleon-deuteron polarization transfer coefficients, $`K_y^y^{}`$, $`K_z^x^{}`$, $`K_y^{x^{}x^{}y^{}y^{}}`$, and $`K_y^{z^{}z^{}}`$. It has been suggested in Ref.  that these observables are sensitive to the tensor part of the nuclear forces and therefore they could in principle represent a good testing ground for the 3$`N`$$`F`$-operator we are studying in the present paper, since this has a pronounced tensor structure. In addition, recent experimental data are now available, for both $`n`$$`d`$ and $`p`$$`d`$ systems, and a number of theoretical studies about these coefficients have been performed already  with a variety of different 2$`N`$ potentials, with the addition of 3$`N`$$`F`$’s, and more recently also with the inclusion of the modifications introduced by Coulomb effects. From these studies it emerged that the nucleon-to-nucleon transfer coefficients $`K_y^y^{}`$ and $`K_z^x^{}`$ exhibit a scaling behavior with respect to the triton binding energy, while the nucleon-to-deuteron coefficients $`K_y^{x^{}x^{}y^{}y^{}}`$, and $`K_y^{z^{}z^{}}`$ do not scale. Moreover, $`K_y^y^{}`$ and $`K_z^x^{}`$ exhibit sizable Coulomb effects, while for the other two coefficients the effects are much less appreciable. For the case of $`K_y^y^{}`$, where it was possible to compare directly theory with $`n`$$`d`$ data, it was found that the theoretical calculations underpredict the minimum at $`110^o`$, once the scaling effect with binding, originated by the 2$`\pi `$-exchange 3$`N`$$`F`$, was properly taken into account. Moreover, discrepancies between theoretical calculations and experimental data concerning the Coulomb effects for $`K_y^y^{}`$ at 19 MeV concur to conclude that the situation is not fully understood. For the nucleon-to-deuteron tensor transfer coefficients the situation is also unclear, since Coulomb effects and traditional 2$`\pi `$-exchange 3$`N`$$`F`$ provide too small modifications for a correct reproduction of data (for $`K_y^{x^{}x^{}y^{}y^{}}`$ the peak at $`135^o`$ is underestimated). This state of affairs demands for more theoretical investigations; at the same time more extensive experimental studies for these observables in this energy range could be extremely useful.

In Figs. 12 and 13 we show the results obtained with the Bonn $`B`$ and CD-Bonn potentials, respectively, and compare these with experimental $`n`$$`d`$ data taken at 15, 17, and 19 MeV, Ref. . Our calculations do not include the effects of the 2$`\pi `$-exchange 3$`N`$$`F`$, and therefore one should take into account in the discussion the rescaling effect that tend to push the lines downward (this tendency is however reduced with the Bonn-types interactions, which provide smaller 3$`N`$ underbinding with respect to other 2$`N`$ interactions). The results for the Bonn $`B`$ case suggest that the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect we have calculated is able to correct the underprediction of the minimum of $`K_y^y^{}`$ at $`110^o`$, however the results with the CD-Bonn potential do not confirm this indication, since the modifications are smaller here and have the tendency to go in the opposite direction. In Figs. 14 and 15 we similarly compare the $`p`$$`d`$ data at 19 MeV  with $`n`$$`d`$ calculations at 18.3 MeV. This comparison has to be made with great prudence, since Coulomb effects and the 2$`\pi `$-3NF provide appreciable effects, but the two modifications tend somewhat to cancel out . Nevertheless, it is interesting to observe that here the minimum of $`K_y^y^{}`$ is appreciably overpredicted in the Bonn $`B`$ case (lower panel of Fig. 14) while in the case of the CD-Bonn potential the irreducible pionic effects do not affect the results appreciably and therefore they maintain the quality of the fit (lower panel of Fig. 15). Thus, the experimental “mismatch” between the $`n`$$`d`$ and $`p`$$`d`$ data for $`K_y^y^{}`$ at 19 MeV acquires an interesting twist: the $`n`$$`d`$ data seem to support the Bonn $`B`$ \+ OPE-3NF calculations, the $`p`$$`d`$ data seem to support more the CD-Bonn + OPE-3NF results.

Finally, in Figs. 16 and 17 the tensor transfer coefficients are compared with experiments  at 19 MeV. Again, we observe appreciable effects introduced by the OPE-3NF diagram in the case of the Bonn $`B`$ interaction, while for the CD-Bonn case the effects appear to be smaller, although they go in the same direction. We observe that the calculation with Bonn $`B`$ \+ OPE-3NF (Fig. 16) is able to solve the underprediction problem in $`K_y^{x^{}x^{}y^{}y^{}}`$, but at the same time it increases the discrepancies in $`K_y^{z^{}z^{}}`$, while in the case of the CD-Bonn + OPE-3NF the situation remains essentially unchanged (Fig. 17).

## IV Conclusions

We have studied the low-energy effects in nucleon-deuteron scattering due to an irreducible pionic effect leading to a 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram of pronounced tensor structure. Overall we find that the effects of this diagram on the differential cross section are negligible in the considered energy range, indicating that the average impact of this 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram on 3$`N`$ dynamics is small. On the other hand, for the case of the spin observables, the higher sensitivity to the smaller components of the wave function is able to detect the presence of this contribution. This is so especially for the case of the vector analyzing powers $`A_y`$ and $`iT_{11}`$, which are considered to be a magnifying glass for the triplet P waves of the 2$`N`$ subsystem. Independently of the 2$`N`$ interactions used as input, we found that this 3$`N`$$`F`$ contribution has the potential to significantly increase (about a 30% effect) the magnitude of these two observables, and to solve a discrepancy observed long time ago. This is a consequence of the specific spin-isospin structure of such 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagram which affects in a privileged manner the triplet odd states .

For the remaining spin observables (tensor analyzing powers and polarization transfer coefficients) the changes due to this pionic contribution are small, however we found situations where the diagram produces appreciable effects. In particular with the use of the Bonn B potential there are indications that the corrections produced move towards the right direction, but the results with the newer CD-Bonn potential reduce the size of these changes considerably. We found few cases where the calculations are slightly - but appreciably - different when the 3$`N`$$`F`$ effect is calculated with Bonn $`B`$ or CD-Bonn potentials. It happens with $`T_{21}`$ in the energy range 10-20 MeV, with $`K_y^y^{}`$ in the energy range 15-19 MeV, and with $`K_y^{x^{}x^{}y^{}y^{}}`$ and $`K_y^{z^{}z^{}}`$ around 19 MeV. There are however still too many uncertainties for arriving at a definite conclusion about these slight differences. Comparison of the wealth of experimental data for charged particles has been done using only the Coulomb slow-down hypothesis, while a consistent inclusion of Coulomb effects is in principle required. Finally, a more complete study requires also the inclusion of the remaining 3$`N`$$`F`$ diagrams of different topology. In particular, it is known that the 2$`\pi `$3NF diagram produces additional corrections which are needed for removing the underbinding of the 3$`N`$ bound state. The influence on the vector analyzing powers in the considered energy range, however, appears to be marginal.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work is supported by the Italian MURST-PRIN Project “Fisica Teorica del Nucleo e dei Sistemi a Più Corpi”. W. Sch. thanks INFN and the University of Padova for hospitality and acknowledges support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

## A binding energy

With the same model interactions used in the main text, we have calculated also the triton binding energy. The results are given in the Tab. III. For each one of the three potentials, the first value in the table reports the 3$`N`$ binding energy calculated by a direct solution of the homogeneous Faddeev equation in two momentum variables (2D), using the original 2$`N`$ potential as input, and without resorting to the separable expansion method. Details on the computational method are explained in Ref.  and references therein. The second value has been calculated also via a direct solution of the 2D Faddeev equation, but this time using as input the separable expansion of the 2$`N`$ potential, with the same ranks as given by Tab. I. The third value represents the binding energy obtained with the same separable representation of the 2$`N`$ potential as in the previous line, but using the one-dimensional algorithm corresponding to the Lovelace-Alt-Grassberger-Sandhas homogeneous equation . Finally, the last line includes the irreducible pionic effects, as discussed in this work, in the 1D calculation for the binding energy.


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# Zero temperature phase structure of multi-flavor QCDPresented by S.K.

## 1 Introduction

Perturbative analysis of QCD coupling constant renormalization tells us that the coefficients in the series expansion of the $`\beta `$-function changes their signs depending on the number of light quark flavors. Based on this, it was suggested that long and/or short distance behavior of QCD may change with the number of light quark flavors . Although these arguments are founded upon perturbation theory, they may remain valid even in the non-perturbative regime. Indeed, lattice simulations with multi-flavored QCD reveal rich phase structures.

For eight light staggered quark flavors, there is a strong first order phase transition which separates the strong coupling region from the weak coupling region. For a given lattice spatial volume, this transition appears to be $`N_t`$-independent bulk transition where $`N_t`$ is the number of sites along the time direction. The weak coupling phase is divided into two region : in one region of weak coupling space chiral condensates shows linear behavior in quark mass, and in the other region they show non-linearity. It has been speculated that there may be a normal finite temperature phase transition between these two different weak coupling phases. On the other hand, using simulation results with Wilson quark formulation in the strong coupling limit, the authors of Ref.  argue that lattice QCD for $`N_f7`$ has an interacting limit without quark confinement in contrast to the usual QCD, a theory with spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and color confinement in low energy. Even if the color confinement and the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking is rigorously proven in the infinite coupling limit (in quenched approximation to QCD), it is claimed that copious addition of light quark flavors modifies the string-like vacuum structure of a theory with gluon only.

In short, the existence of a strong first order bulk phase transition which separates the strong coupling region and the weak coupling one is well established. Continuum limit of lattice theory for multi-flavor QCD is less clear. For staggered quark simulations, investigation of the weak coupling phase by use of hadron spectroscopy calculation was hampered by small spatial lattice volumes . Simulation result with Wilson dynamical quark in the strong coupling limit is difficult to make a contact with the continuum limit. Thus, further study in the weak coupling phase structure of multi-flavor QCD using light dynamical quarks is needed. Here, we would like to endeavor toward this direction. Our efforts will be concentrated on various susceptibilities such as chiral susceptibility and finite size scaling of them.

## 2 Simulation Characteristics

We use R-algorithm to simulate QCD with arbitrary number of quark flavors and employ staggered fermion method for the dynamical quarks. Target platform for our project is 128-node Fujitsu VPP-700 at RIKEN, the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, in Japan. Since we expect the need for large lattice volume from other groups’ experiences, two dimensional layout of compute nodes is adopted as part of our parallelization strategy. Similar to our work on quenched spectroscopy of QCD, four dimensional $`N_t\times N_x\times N_y\times N_z`$ lattice points are distributed evenly over the y and the z directions so that for given number of compute nodes, it is divided into $`M_y\times M_z`$’s y directional and z directional nodes. Each compute nodes handles $`N_t\times N_x\times L_y\times L_z`$ sub-lattice points. For example, $`8^4`$ lattice volume run reported here uses 8-node partition. This 8-node partition is layed out as $`(4,2)`$ mesh points and each nodes computes $`8\times 8\times 2\times 4`$ sub-lattice points. We also use checker-boarded site classification for storing dynamical variables. Periodic boundary condition for the time direction is imposed on the gauge field. Anti-periodic boundary condition for the time direction is imposed on the fermion. For the three space directions, periodic boundary condition is used for all fields.

Before studying zero temperature phase structure of multi-flavor QCD in detail, a set of exploratory runs on a $`8^4`$ lattice with time step $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau =0.01`$ was done. Simulations with dynamical quark mass $`m_qa=0.01,0.015,0.02`$, and $`0.025`$ is performed for the number of quark flavors, $`N_f=6`$ and 8. Since we are interested in the weak coupling phase, range of $`\beta =6/g^2`$ from 5.0 to 5.5 is chosen for the preliminary run (note that for a $`16^4`$ lattice volume with $`N_f=8`$ staggered quarks, the critical coupling is 4.62(1) for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau =0.005`$). There is $`(\mathrm{\Delta }\tau )^2`$ errors associated with R-algorithm and the difference in the step size makes quantitative comparison more subtle.

Figure 1 shows typical Monte Carlo evolutions of the chiral condensate for four different quark masses with $`N_f=6`$ at each $`\beta `$. Ordered start runs with total simulation time, $`\tau 220`$, are shown in the figure. The average values of the chiral condensate from the Monte Carlo time $`\tau =20`$ to $`\tau =220`$ are given in Figure 3. The error in the figure does not include auto-correlation among the data and are probably underestimated. There is a linear relationship between the chiral condensate and the quark mass and it is in agreement with the behavior found in . Similarly, the average chiral condensate for $`N_f=8`$ is shown in Figure 4. The simulation length, $`\tau `$, is $`220`$ and the average is over the last $`\tau =200`$ time unit. Ranges of $`\beta =4.75.5`$ are simulated with the same set of quark masses as $`N_f=6`$.

## 3 Discussion

In order to study the zero temperature behavior of multi-flavor QCD further, we started full dynamical simulation. R-algorithm which allows us to simulate arbitrary number of quark flavors is chosen. Our simulation is at early stage of investigation and is currently compared with earlier results by other groups on a small $`8^4`$ lattice volume. The weak coupling phase of $`N_f=6`$ and 8 is investigated. There exist a linear relation between the chiral condensate and the light dynamical quark mass, which is in agreement with earlier results. For the planned more detailed investigation of the weak coupling phase, several aspects of the current lattice calculation need to be refined. First, we need to test whether $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau ^2`$ error associated with the current algorithm is small in the simulation result. Next, we need to add more observables : various susceptibilities such as chiral susceptibility calculation and specific heat calculation are currently being implemented.


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# A New Model-Independent Analysis of 𝐵→𝑋_𝑠𝛾 in Supersymmetry Work partially supported by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds.

## 1 Introduction

Flavour changing neutral current (FCNC) processes provide crucial guidelines for supersymmetry model building. Besides the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (CKM)-induced contributions, there are generic supersymmetric contributions induced by flavour mixing in the squark mass matrices within the so-called unconstrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The structure of the MSSM does not explain the suppression of FCNC processes, which is observed in experiments; this is the crucial point of the well-known supersymmetric flavour problem.

Among neutral flavour transitions involving the third generation, the rare decay $`BX_s\gamma `$ is at present the most important one , as it is the only inclusive mode that is already measured  and that already provides theoretically clean and rather stringent constraints on the parameter space of various extensions of the SM . Although the theoretical SM prediction, up to next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) precision  for its branching ratio, is in agreement with the experimental data, it is still possible that the rare decay $`BX_s\gamma `$ leads to the first evidence of new physics by a significant deviation from the SM prediction, for example in the observables concerning direct CP violation .

The decay $`BX_s\gamma `$ is sensitive to the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking because, in the limit of exact supersymmetry, the decay rate would be just zero, $`(BX_s\gamma )=0`$. Flavour violation thus originates from the interplay between the dynamics of flavour and the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking and FCNC processes may contribute to the question of which mechanism ultimately breaks the supersymmetry.

Former analyses in the unconstrained MSSM neglected QCD corrections and only used the gluino contribution to saturate the experimental bounds. Moreover, no correlations between different sources of flavour violation were taken into account. In this way, one arrived at ‘order-of-magnitude bounds’ on the soft parameters . In , the sensitivity of the bounds on the down squark mass matrix to radiative QCD corrections was analysed, including the SM and the gluino contributions. In the new analysis  we present here, we include the contributions from charged Higgs bosons, charginos and neutralinos and their interference effects and, even more important, the effects that result when several flavour violating parameters, i.e. several off-diagonal elements in the squark mass matrices, are switched on simultaneously.

## 2 Phenomenological Analysis

To understand the sources of flavour violation that may be present in supersymmetric models, in addition to those enclosed in the CKM matrix, one has to consider the contributions to the squark mass matrices

$$_f^2\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{f,LL}^2+F_{fLL}+D_{fLL}& \left(m_{f,LR}^2\right)+F_{fLR}\\ \left(m_{f,LR}^2\right)^{}+F_{fRL}& m_{f,RR}^2+F_{fRR}+D_{fRR}\end{array}\right),$$
(1)
where $`f`$ stands for up- or down-type squarks. We recall that the matrices $`m_{u,LL}`$ and $`m_{d,LL}`$ cannot be specified independently; $`SU(2)_L`$ gauge invariance implies that $`m_{u,LL}=Km_{d,LL}K^{}`$, where $`K`$ is the CKM matrix. In the super-CKM basis, where the quark mass matrices are diagonal and the squarks are rotated in parallel to their superpartners, the $`F`$ terms from the superpotential and the $`D`$ terms turn out to be diagonal $`3\times 3`$ submatrices of the $`6\times 6`$ mass matrices $`_f^2`$. This is in general not true for the additional terms $`m_f^2`$, originating from the soft supersymmetry breaking potential. Because all neutral gaugino couplings are flavour diagonal in the super CKM basis, the gluino contributions to the decay $`BX_s\gamma `$ are induced by the off-diagonal elements of the soft terms $`m_{f,LL}^2`$, $`m_{f,RR}^2`$, $`m_{f,RL}^2`$. Since there are different contributions to this decay, with different numerical impact on its rate, some of these flavour violating terms may turn out to be poorly constrained. Thus, given the generality of such a calculation, it is convenient to rely on the mass eigenstate formalism, which remains valid even when some of the intergenerational mixing elements are large, and not to use the approximate mass insertion method (MIA), where the off-diagonal squark mass matrix elements are taken to be small and their higher powers neglected. In the latter approach the reliability of the approximation can be checked only a posteriori.

As a first step, it is convenient to select one possible source of flavour violation in the squark sector at a time and assume that all the remaining ones are vanishing. It should be stressed that one already excludes any kind of interference effects between different sources of flavour violation in this way. Following ref. , all diagonal entries in $`m_{d,LL}^2`$, $`m_{d,RR}^2`$, and $`m_{u,RR}^2`$ are set equal and their common value is denoted by $`m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}^2`$. The branching ratio can then be studied as a function of

$$\delta _{LL,ij}=\frac{(m_{d,LL}^2)_{ij}}{m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}^2},\delta _{RR,ij}=\frac{(m_{d,RR}^2)_{ij}}{m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}^2},\delta _{LR,ij}=\frac{(m_{d,LR}^2)_{ij}}{m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}^2}(ij).$$
(2)
We find that only those parameters get stringently bounded by $`BX_s\gamma `$, which can generate contributions to the two five-dimensional gluino-induced dipole operators, namely $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ and $`\delta _{d,RL,23}`$. The two corresponding operators are connected by chirality and are denoted by $`𝒪_{7\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}}`$ and $`\widehat{𝒪}_{7\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}}`$ in the following. As the gluino yields, intrinsically, the dominant contribution by far, we also find that the bounds on $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ and $`\delta _{d,RL,23}`$ are only marginally modified by chargino, neutralino and charged Higgs boson contributions.

In the second part of our analysis, we investigate whether the obtained bounds remain stable if all off-diagonal elements, which induce the decay $`BX_s\gamma `$, are varied simultaneously. For our analysis we explore various scenarios that are characterized by the values of the parameters $`\mu ,M_H^{},\mathrm{tan}\beta ,M_{\mathrm{susy}},m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}`$. We regard this as reasonable, because we expect that these input parameters, which are unrelated to flavour physics, will be fixed from flavour conserving observables in the next generations of high energy experiments (provided low energy SUSY exists). We note that the common SUSY scale, $`M_{\mathrm{susy}}`$, fixes in our scenarios the general soft squark mass scale $`m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}`$ (see (2)) and the first diagonal element of the chargino mass matrix $`M_2`$. The mass of the charged Higgs boson $`M_H^{}`$ are fixed to be $`M_H^{}=300GeV`$. We also allow for a non-degeneracy of the diagonal elements in the matrices $`m_{d,LL}^2`$, $`m_{d,RR}^2`$, and $`m_{u,RR}^2`$. To implement this, we define $`\delta `$-quantities in addition to those in eq. (2), which parametrize this non-degeneracy: $`\delta _{f,LL,ii}=((m_{f,LL}^2)_{ii}m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}^2)/(m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}^2)`$; and analogously for $`\delta _{f,RR,ii}`$. In our Monte Carlo analysis these diagonal $`\delta `$-parameters are varied in the interval $`[0.2,0.2]`$. On the other hand, the off-diagonal ones (in eq. (2)) are varied in the interval $`[0.5,0.5]`$, by use of a Monte Carlo program. There are, however, two exceptions. First, we do not vary those off-diagonal $`\delta `$’s with an index $`1`$; the latter $`\delta `$’s we set to zero, since they are severely constrained by kaon decays (see for example ). Second, also $`(m_{u,LR}^2)_{33}`$ is not varied, but fixed such that the mass of the lightest neutral Higgs boson gets heavy enough to be compatible with experimental bounds . We plot those events, corresponding to $`2.0\times 10^4BR(BX_s\gamma )4.5\times 10^4`$, which is the range allowed by the CLEO measurement.

We start with the following parameter set: $`\mu =300GeV`$, $`M_H^{}=300GeV`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =10`$, $`M_{\mathrm{susy}}=500GeV`$, $`x=m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}^2/M_{\mathrm{susy}}^2=1`$ and $`X_t=750GeV`$. In fig. 1, we only consider SM and gluino contributions. In the left frame we present the constraints on $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ and $`\delta _{d,RL,23}`$ when these are the only flavour-violating soft parameters; the diagonal $`\delta `$-parameters defined above are also switched off. As expected, stringent constraints are obtained. The hole inside the dotted area represents values of $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ and $`\delta _{d,RL,23}`$ for which the branching ratio is too small to be compatible with the measurements. In the right frame we now investigate interference effects from different sources of flavour violation, where we allow for non-zero $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,RL,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,LL,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,RR,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,LR,22}`$, and $`\delta _{d,LR,33}`$. All these parameters are varied between $`\pm 0.5`$. As can be seen, the bounds on $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ and $`\delta _{d,RL,23}`$ get destroyed dramatically (note the different scale in the two plots). The reason for this is that there are now new contributions to the five-dimensional dipole operators. As an example, the combined effect of $`\delta _{d,LR,33}`$ and $`\delta _{d,LL,23}`$ leads to a contribution to the Wilson coefficient of the gluino-induced magnetic dipole operator $`𝒪_{7\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}}`$. The sign of this contribution can be different from the one generated by $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$. As a consequence, the bound on $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ gets weakened. To illustrate this more quantitatively, we assume for the moment that there are only these two sources that can generate $`𝒪_{7\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}}`$, i.e. we switch off the other $`\delta `$-quantities. If $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ is larger than the individual bound from the first part of the analysis, it is necessary that the product of $`\delta _{d,LR,33}`$ and $`\delta _{d,LL,23}`$ also be relatively large; only in this case can the two sources lead to a branching ratio compatible with experiment. This feature is illustrated in fig. 2; only values of $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$ and values of $`\delta _{d,LR,33}\delta _{d,LL,23}`$ that are strongly correlated lead to an acceptable branching ratio.

As clearly visible from fig. 2, the correlation between the two sources for $`𝒪_{7\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}}`$ is essentially linear. This implies that the linear combination $`com:=\delta _{d,LR,23}+f\delta _{d,LR,33}\delta _{d,LL,23}`$ gets constrained if $`f`$ is chosen appropriately. Stated differently, the Wilson coefficient of the five-dimensional magnetic dipole operator is essentially proportional to the combination $`com`$ defined above. This implies in turn, that for the values of the parameters we are using at the moment, the Wilson coefficient is well approximated by its double mass insertion expression. Thus, the coefficient $`f`$ can be fixed analytically (see ); the numerical values of $`f(x)`$ for some values of $`x`$ read $`0.74`$ for $`x=0.3`$, $`0.68`$ for $`x=0.5`$, $`0.60`$ for $`x=1.0`$ and $`0.52`$ for $`x=2.0`$, respectively. The solid line in fig. 2 represents pairs ($`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,LR,33}\delta _{d,LL,23}`$) for which the combination $`com`$ is zero. The points scattered around this line therefore represent Monte Carlo events for which this combination is small. We now turn back to the scenario of fig. 1, in which all the parameters $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,RL,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,LL,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,RR,23}`$, $`\delta _{d,LR,22}`$, $`\delta _{d,LR,33}`$ are varied simultaneously. In this case, the linear combinations

$`LC_1`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{d,RL,23}+f(x)\delta _{d,RR,23}\delta _{d,RL,33}+f(x)\delta _{d,RL,22}\delta _{d,LL,23},`$
$`LC_2`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{d,LR,23}+f(x)\delta _{d,LR,22}\delta _{d,RR,23}+f(x)\delta _{d,LL,23}\delta _{d,LR,33},`$ (3)
are expected to get constrained. In fig. 3 we show the allowed region for $`LC_1`$ and $`LC_2`$. There, we allow all non-diagonal $`\delta `$-parameters to vary between $`\pm 0.5`$. In addition, we also allow for non-equal diagonal soft entries, by varying the parameters $`\delta _{f,LL,ii}`$ and $`\delta _{f,RR,ii}`$ between $`\pm 0.2`$. With the latter choice we still guarantee the hierarchy between diagonal and off-diagonal entries, but we get rid of the unnatural assumption of degenerate diagonal entries. In the left frame, we include only the SM and gluino contributions. We find that the linear combinations $`LC_1`$ and $`LC_2`$ indeed get stringently bounded. In the right frame of fig. 3 we test the resistance of these bounds when the additional contributions (i.e., those from charginos, charged Higgs bosons and neutralinos) are turned on. In this case also $`\delta _{u,LR,23}`$, $`\delta _{u,RL,23}`$, $`\delta _{u,LL,23}`$, $`\delta _{u,RR,23}`$ and $`\delta _{u,LR,22}`$ are varied in the range $`\pm 0.5`$. We find that the bound on $`LC_1`$ remains unchanged, while the one on $`LC_2`$ gets somewhat weakened. This feature is expected, because charginos and charged Higgs bosons contribute to the unprimed operator.

At this point we should stress that these plots were obtained by choosing the renormalization scale $`\mu _b=4.8GeV`$ and by requiring all squark masses to be larger than $`150GeV`$. We checked that the bounds on $`LC_1`$ and $`LC_2`$ remain practically unchanged when the renormalization scale is varied between $`2.4GeV`$ and $`9.6GeV`$; they are also insensitive to the value of the required minimal squark mass, as we found by changing $`m_{\mathrm{squark}\mathrm{min}}`$ from $`150GeV`$ to $`100GeV`$ or $`250GeV`$. Moreover, we also checked whether the restriction to the $`\mu =+300`$ $`GeV`$ scenario is too severe: we redid the complete analysis for $`\mu =300GeV`$ and confirmed that there are no differences between the results with these two choices.

There is a remark in order. If we got rid of the hierarchy of diagonal and off-diagonal entries in the squark mass matrices, stringent bounds on the simple combinations $`LC_1`$ and $`LC_2`$ certainly would no longer exist, simply because there would then be more contributions to the five-dimensional operators of similar magnitude. In this case, however, the $`full`$ Wilson coefficients of the five-dimensional operators would still be stringently constrained by the experimental data on $`BX_s\gamma `$. Unfortunately, in this case not much information can be extracted for the individual soft parameters or simple combinations thereof.

Finally, we extend our analysis to other values of the input parameters. We analyse the bounds on the soft parameters within the following parameter sets: $`M_{\mathrm{susy}}`$ $`=`$ $`300GeV`$, $`500GeV`$, $`1000GeV`$. For $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ we explore the values: $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =2,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}30},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}50}.`$ Furthermore, the gluino mass $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}`$ is varied over the values $`x=m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}^2/M_{\mathrm{susy}}^2=0.3,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.5},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$. Surprisingly, we find that the constraints on $`LC_1`$ and $`LC_2`$ are completely stable over large parts of the parameter space. However, the bounds get weakened when $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ values as large as $`50`$ are chosen. This effect gets enhanced when the general mass scale $`m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}`$ in the squark mass matrices decreases with the parameter $`M_{\mathrm{susy}}`$. There are two main reasons why the bounds get weakened in these scenarios. First, in the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ regime, the term $`(F_{d,LR})_{33}`$ gets strongly enhanced because it is proportional to $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. Particularly, for $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =50`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{susy}}=300GeV`$, the term $`(F_{d,LR})_{33}`$ is of the same magnitude as the diagonal entries of the squark mass matrix. Thus, the contributions to the Wilson coefficients of the five-dimensional gluino operators (induced by $`(F_{d,LR})_{33}`$ in combination with $`\delta _{d,LL,23}`$ or $`\delta _{d,RR,23}`$) become important enough to weaken the bounds on $`LC_1`$ and $`LC_2`$ significantly. The relative importance of this $`F`$ term is of course increased if the general soft squark mass scale $`M_{\mathrm{susy}}`$ is decreased. Second, within the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ regime the contributions from charginos get enhanced and therefore also weaken the bounds on $`LC_2`$. Because the parameter $`(F_{d,LR})_{33}`$ is actually proportional to the product of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and $`\mu `$, we conclude from the above findings that the bound on $`LC_1`$ is unchanged if we increase the value of $`\mu `$ and decrease the value of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ so that the product of both parameters is constant; the bound on $`LC_2`$ is then even stronger, because the chargino contribution is smaller for increasing $`\mu `$.

## 3 Conclusions

Our new model-independent analysis of the rare decay $`BX_s\gamma `$, based on a systematic leading logarithmic QCD analysis, mainly explored the interplay between the various sources of flavour violation and the interference effects of SM, gluino, chargino, neutralino, and charged Higgs boson contributions. In former analyses, no correlations between the different sources of flavour violation were taken into account. Unlike previous work, which used the mass insertion approximation, we used in our analysis the mass eigenstate formalism, which remains valid even when some of the intergenerational mixing elements are large. We singled out two simple combinations of elements of the soft parts of the down squark mass matrices, which stay stringently bounded over large parts of the supersymmetric parameter space, excluding the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and the large $`\mu `$ regime. These new bounds are in general one order of magnitude weaker than the bound on the single off-diagonal element $`\delta _{d,LR,23}`$, which was derived in previous work  by neglecting any kind of interference effects. It seems that the flavour problem is less severe in the $`B`$ system than often stated. Thus, it would be interesting to explore also the consequences of natural interference effects between different sources of flavour changes within the kaon sector.