n + p → d + γ in effective field theory Original Research Article

The radiative capture process n + p → d + γ provides clear evidence for meson exchange currents in nuclear physics. We compute this process at low energies using a recently developed power counting for the effective field theory that describes nucleon-nucleon interactions. The leading order contribution to this process comes from the photon coupling to the nucleon magnetic moments. At subleading order there are other contributions. Among these are graphs where the photon couples directly to pions, i.e. meson exchange currents. These diagrams are divergent and require the presence of a local four-nucleon-one-photon counterterm. The coefficient of this operator is determined by the measured cross section, σexpt = 334.2±0.5 mb, for incident neutrons with speed |v| = 2200 m/s.