Dynamical interpretation of the nucleon–nucleon interaction and exchange currents in the large NC limit Original Research Article

Expression of the nucleon–nucleon interaction to order 1/NC in terms of Fermi invariants allows a dynamical interpretation of the interaction and leads to a consistent construction of the associated interaction currents to order 1/NC. The numerically significant components of 4 different modern realistic phenomenological interaction models are shown to admit very similar meson exchange interpretations in the large NC limit. Moreover the ratio of the volume integrals of the leading, next-to-leading and next-to-next leading order terms in these interaction models is roughly 300:5–10:0.1, which corresponds fairly well to the ratios of 1/NC2 between the terms that would be suggested by the 1/NC expansion if NC=3. The NC dependence of the electromagnetic and axial interaction currents that are associated with these interaction components is derived and compared to that of the corresponding single nucleon currents.