2000/02/16 by Mark Paris, Mark W. Paris, V. R. Pandharipande +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Nuclear physics research studies #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.62.015201
published as Phys.Rev. C62 (2000) 015201 · 49 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C
arxiv created 2000/02/16 · openalex publication_date 2000/06/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The variational Monte Carlo method is used to find the ground state of six quarks confined to a cavity of diameter Rc, interacting via an assumed nonrelativistic constituent quark model Hamiltonian. We use a flux-tube model augmented with one-gluon and one-pion exchange interactions, which has been successful in describing single hadron spectra. The variational wave function is written as a product of three-quark nucleon states with correlations between quarks in different nucleons. We study the role of quark exchange effects by allowing flux-tube configuration mixing. An accurate six-body variational wave function is obtained. It has only \ensuremath∼13% rms fluctuation in the total energy and yields a standard deviation of \ensuremath\lesssim0.1%; small enough to be useful in discerning nuclear interaction effects from the large rest mass of the two nucleons. Results are presented for three values of the cavity diameter, Rc=2, 4, and 6 fm. They indicate that the flux-tube model Hamiltonian with gluon and pion exchange requires revisions in order to obtain agreement with the energies estimated from realistic two-nucleon interactions. We calculate the two-quark probability distribution functions and show how they may be used to study and adjust the model Hamiltonian.