Origin and properties of strong inter-nucleon interactions

Abstract

I start with a historical review of the attempts to construct theories for the origin of nuclear forces, for which I also summaries the most important properties. The review then shifts to its main focus, which is the chiral effective field theory approach to nuclear forces. I summarize the current status of this approach and discuss the most important open issues: the proper renormalization of the chiral two-nucleon potential and sub-leading three-nucleon forces.

15 pages, 5 figures; keynote talk at the International Conference on Nuclear Theory in the Supercomputing Era, May 13-17, 2013, Ames, Iowa; dedicated to James Vary on the occasion of his 70th birthday