Repulsive short-range three-nucleon interaction.

Abstract

The three nucleon interaction that arises from pion and the effective scalar and vector meson exchange components of the nucleon-nucleon interaction is constructed and shown to be repulsive. Using several wavefunction models we show that this interaction reduces the calculated binding energy of the trinucleons by about 200 keV. The contributions of intermediate $N$(1440) resonances to this three nucleon interaction and of the $D$-state component in the trinucleon model are estimated, and shown to be small.