A nuclear model with explicit mesons

TL;DR

This paper introduces a nuclear model where nucleons interact through explicit meson exchange, resulting in a superposition of states that explains nuclear binding and properties, notably applied to the deuteron.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel nuclear model explicitly incorporating mesons, providing a new approach to nuclear interactions with fewer parameters and natural inclusion of mesonic effects.

Findings

Successfully reproduces deuteron binding energy

Accurately predicts deuteron charge radius

Demonstrates potential advantages over existing models

Abstract

A nuclear model is proposed where the nucleons interact by emitting and absorbing mesons, and where the mesons are treated explicitly. A nucleus in this model finds itself in a quantum superposition of states with different number of mesons. Transitions between these states hold the nucleus together. The model---in its simplest incarnation---is applied to the deuteron, where the latter becomes a superposition of a neutron-proton state and a neutron-proton-meson state. Coupling between these states leads to an effective attraction between the nucleons and results in a bound state with negative energy, the deuteron. The model is able to reproduce the accepted values for the binding energy and the charge radius of the deuteron. The model, should it work in practice, has several potential advantages over the existing non-relativistic few-body nuclear models: the reduced number of model parameters, natural inclusion of few-body forces, and natural inclusion of mesonic physics.