Four-nucleon force contribution to the binding energy of 4He

Abstract

We study the four-nucleon force contribution to the binding energy of 4He in the framework of chiral nuclear interactions. The four-nucleon forces start to contribute in the next-to-next-to-next-to leading order. We discuss our power counting expectations for the size of the 4N contribution and then explicitly calculate it in first order perturbation theory. Our expectations agree with the results. Quantitatively, the contribution might be significant. This motivates further studies in more complex nuclei.