Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering and Large N(c) QCD

Abstract

Nucleon-nucleon scattering observables are discussed in the context of large Nc QCD. As is well known, the baryon spectrum in the large Nc limit exhibits contracted SU(2Nf) spin-flavor sym- metry. This symmetry can be used to derive model-independent relations between proton-proton and proton-neutron total cross sections. These relations are valid in the kinematic regime in which the relative momentum of two nucleons is of order of Nc. In this semiclassical regime the nucleon-nucleon scattering can be described in the time-dependent mean field approximation. These model-independent results are compared to experimental data for spin-independent and polarized total nucleon-nucleon cross sections.