Nucleon-nucleon interactions from dispersion relations: Elastic partial waves

We consider nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions from chiral effective field theory. In this work we restrict ourselves to the elastic NN scattering. We apply the N/D method to calculate the NN partial waves taking as input the one-pion exchange discontinuity along the left-hand cut. This discontinuity is amenable to a chiral power counting as discussed by Lacour, Oller and Meissner [Ann. Phys. (NY) 326, 241 (2011)], with one-pion exchange as its leading order contribution. The resulting linear integral equation for a partial wave with orbital angular momentum L>=2 is solved in the presence of L-1 constraints, so as to guarantee the right behavior of the D and higher partial waves near threshold. The calculated NN partial waves are based on dispersion relations and are independent of regulator. This method can also be applied to higher orders in the calculation of the discontinuity along the left-hand cut and extended to triplet coupled partial waves.