This is the Nuclear Theory Home Page
(Under development, Last Update 10-28-96, S.A.M.)
Nuclear Forces
Work is proceeding on the application of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio Model
to the nuclear force problem. The NJL model is a particular approximation to
non-perturbative quantum chromodynamics, in which the gluons are integrated
out. The quarks start out as essentially massless, but they acquire a finite
constituent mass by virtue of spontanenous symmetry breaking. The same
mechanism
also generates a scalar meson, whose mass is twice that of the constituent
quark.
The Pauli principle acting between quarks generates a short range repulsion
so that the net potential responsible for nuclear binding resembles interatomic
potentials, except for the change of scale to higher energies and smaller
distances.
One important feature of the NJL model is that it makes comprehensible why the
nuclear two body system has nearly zero binding, i.e. there is a near
cancellation
between kinetic and potential energies.
Nuclear Three Body Problem
Using simple nucleon-nucleon potentials, we are investigating the nuclear
three-
body system, in particular, the energy of the ground state and of the first
excited
state. We are using both a stochastic variational calculation developed by
Varga and Suzuki, and a coordinate system representation of the Faddeev method
developed by Fedorov and Jensen.
Nuclear Structure and the Many-Body Problem
We are investigating the binding of nuclear matter, using analogies from
condensed
matter physics, such as the theory of corresponding states.