Can one extract the pi-neutron scattering length from pi-deuteron scattering?

Abstract

We give a prove of evidence that the original power counting by Weinberg can be applied to estimate the contributions of the operators contributing to the pi-deuteron scattering length. As a consequence, pi-deuteron observables can be used to extract neutron amplitudes--in case of pi-deuteron scattering this means that the pi-neutron scattering length can be extracted with high accuracy. This result is at variance with recent claims. We discuss the origin of this difference.

Comments: 9 pages, 4 figures