Chiral Symmetry and the Nucleon-Nucleon Interaction
Grant
Overview
abstract
0099444 Machleidt Phenomenological nucleon-nucleon (NN) potentials, based on meson exchange, provide a high-precision description of the NN scattering data. A drawback of these potentials is that they are not derived from the fundamental theory of the strong interaction, QCD. The symmetries of QCD are retained in a low energy effective field theory termed chiral perturbation theory. The chiral NN potentials so derived do not, as yet, provide such a quantitative fit, nor are they suited for microscopic nuclear structure theory. The Principal Investigator has experience with the development of potentials that provide a high quality fit. The proposal contains a plan for continuing development of the chiral NN potentials until they give a high-precision fit to the data. An accurate chiral NN potential will have substantial impact on exact few-nucleon studies and microscopic nuclear many-body theory.
