Qualitative treatment of three-nucleon properties

Abstract

An attempt is made at consistent qualitative treatment of the three-nucleon system. The approach used is based on the physical concept of effective three-nucleon long-range interaction resulting from the existence of the deuteron and the virtual singlet deuteron. Within the framework of the approach, a qualitative treatment of the triton properties, nucleon-deuteron scattering, and triton-disintegration reactions is carried out. The following topics are dealt with: the Phillips line, the triton D-wave admixture, the doublet effective range of the n-d scattering, the triton virtual state, the anomaly of the n-d elastic cross section near the three-body threshold, and the partial cross sections of the inelastic n-d scattering and of the triton photo- and electrodisintegration. The discussion of these topics includes the evaluation of three-nucleon parameters and the qualitative interpretation of experimental data and calculation results; some predictions are also made. The results of our analysis lead to the conclusion that the concept of effective three-nucleon long-range interaction can indeed serve as grounds for consistent qualitative treatment of the three-nucleon phenomena.