Three-Body Nuclear Forces from a Matrix Model

TL;DR

This paper calculates three-body nuclear forces at short distances using a holographic QCD matrix model, revealing repulsive interactions in certain neutron and proton configurations, impacting dense nuclear matter.

Contribution

It introduces a novel computation of three-body nuclear forces at short distances within a holographic QCD framework, extending beyond traditional two-body force models.

Findings

Three-body forces are repulsive for aligned three neutrons with averaged spins.

Repulsive three-body forces are found in proton-proton-neutron and proton-neutron-neutron configurations.

Implications for dense nuclear matter, such as neutron star cores and light nuclei, are discussed.

Abstract

We compute three-body nuclear forces at short distances by using the nuclear matrix model of holographic QCD proposed in our previous paper with P. Yi. We find that the three-body forces at short distances are repulsive for (a) aligned three neutrons with averaged spins, and (b) aligned proton-proton-neutron / proton-neutron-neutron. These indicate that in dense states of neutrons such as cores of neutron stars, or in Helium-3 / tritium nucleus, the repulsive forces are larger than the ones estimated from two-body forces only.