Lattice QCD approach to nuclear force

Abstract

We present our updated results of the nucleon-nucleon potential in quenched lattice QCD simulations with the plaquette gauge action and the Wilson quark action on the 32^4(\simeq (4.4 fm)^4) lattice. From the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter (BS) wave function, the NN potential is constructed through the Schroedinger-type equation. Resulting NN potential has all the qualitative features which phenomenological potentials commonly have: the repulsive core at short distance and the attractive well at medium and long distances. In the L \to \infty limit, our NN potential is guaranteed to reproduce the scattering length obtained from the Luescher's formula. The quark mass dependence of the NN potential is studied with m_{pi} \sim 380, 529, 731 MeV. The results suggest that both the repulsive core at short distance and the attractive well at medium distance are enhanced in the light quark mass region.