Effective forces between quantum bound states

TL;DR

This study uses a simplified one-dimensional fermion model to analyze how local interaction details influence the effective forces between bound states, shedding light on complex nuclear interactions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that local interaction features critically determine the magnitude and sign of effective forces between bound states in a simplified model.

Findings

Local interaction strength affects the sign of the effective potential.

Range of local interactions influences the interaction strength.

Simplified model captures key physics of complex nuclear forces.

Abstract

Recent ab initio lattice studies have found that the interactions between alpha particles (4He nuclei) are sensitive to seemingly minor details of the nucleon-nucleon force such as interaction locality. In order to uncover the essential physics of this puzzling phenomenon without unnecessary complications, we study a simple model involving two-component fermions in one spatial dimension. We probe the interaction between two bound dimers for several different particle-particle interactions and measure an effective potential between the dimers using external point potentials which act as numerical tweezers. We find that the strength and range of the local part of the particle-particle interactions play a dominant role in shaping the interactions between the dimers and can even determine the overall sign of the effective potential.