Similarity renormalization group evolution of chiral effective nucleon–nucleon potentials in the subtracted kernel method approach

Methods based on Wilson’s renormalization group have been successfully applied in the context of nuclear physics to analyze the scale dependence of effective nucleon–nucleon (NN) potentials, as well as to consistently integrate out the high-momentum components of phenomenological high-precision NN potentials in order to derive phase-shift equivalent softer forms, the so called Vlow-k potentials. An alternative renormalization group approach that has been applied in this context is the similarity renormalization group (SRG), which is based on a series of continuous unitary transformations that evolve hamiltonians with a cutoff on energy differences. In this work we study the SRG evolution of a leading order (LO) chiral effective NN potential in the 1S0 channel derived within the framework of the subtracted kernel method (SKM), a renormalization scheme based on a subtracted scattering equation.

Research highlights
► We study the similarity renormalization group evolution of chiral NN potentials.
► We evolve an effective potential derived using a subtractive renormalization scheme.
► Unitarity of the SRG evolution is verified within the subtractive scheme.
► High- and low-momentum components decouple for the SRG evolved potential.