We present the two-pion exchange contributions to the nucleon-nucleon interaction up to next-to-next-to-next-to leading order (${\mathrm{N}}^3\mathrm{LO}$) in covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. Both one-loop and two-loop diagrams are calculated with the spectral functional regularization. We show that the phase shifts for partial waves with total angular momentum $3\le J\le 5$ are in better agreement with the partial wave analysis from the Nijmegen or the SAID group than their ${\mathrm{N}}^2\mathrm{LO}$ counterparts. In addition, the relativistic chiral force exhibits better convergence than its nonrelativistic counterpart, suggesting the importance of relativistic corrections.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Chiral perturbation theory
• Nuclear forces
• Nucleon-nucleon interactions