Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering Observables in Large-$N_c$ QCD

Abstract

Nucleon-nucleon scattering observables are considered in the context of the large $N_c$ limit of QCD for initial states with moderately high momenta ($p \sim N_c$). The scattering is studied in the framework of the time-dependent mean-field approximation. We focus on the dependence of those observables on the spin and isospin of the initial state which may be computed using time-dependent mean-field theory. We show that, up to corrections, all such observables must be invariant under simultaneous spin and isospin flips ({\it i.e.} rotations through $\pi/2$ in both spin and isospin) acting on either particle. All observables of this class obtained from spin unpolarized measurements must be isospin independent up to $1/N_c$ corrections. Moreover, it can be shown that the leading correction is of relative order $1/N_c^2$ rather than $1/N_c$.