Dibaryon model for nuclear force and the properties of the $3N$ system

Abstract

The dibaryon model for $NN$ interaction, which implies the formation of an intermediate six-quark bag dressed by a $\sigma$-field, is applied to the $3N$ system, where it results in a new three-body force of scalar nature between the six-quark bag and a third nucleon. A new multicomponent formalism is developed to describe three-body systems with nonstatic pairwise interactions and non-nucleonic degrees of freedom. Precise variational calculations of $3N$ bound states are carried out in the dressed-bag model including the new scalar three-body force. The unified coupling constants and form factors for $2N$ and $3N$ force operators are used in the present approach, in a sharp contrast to conventional meson-exchange models. It is shown that this three-body force gives at least half the $3N$ total binding energy, while the weight of non-nucleonic components in the $^3$H and $^3$He wavefunctions can exceed 10%. The new force model provides a very good description of $3N$ bound states with a reasonable magnitude of the $\sigma NN$ coupling constant. A new Coulomb $3N$ force between the third nucleon and dibaryon is found to be very important for a correct description of the Coulomb energy and r.m.s. charge radius in $^3$He. In view of the new results for Coulomb displacement energy obtained here for A=3 nuclei, an explanation for the long-term Nolen--Schiffer paradox in nuclear physics is suggested. The role of the charge-symmetry-breaking effects in the nuclear force is discussed.