Model independent study of the Dirac structure of the nucleon-nucleon interaction

Abstract

Relativistic and non-relativistic modern nucleon-nucleon potentials are mapped on a relativistic operator basis using projection techniques. This allows to compare the various potentials at the level of covariant amplitudes were a remarkable agreement is found. In nuclear matter large scalar and vector mean fields of several hundred MeV magnitude are generated at tree level. This is found to be a model independent feature of the nucleon-nucleon interaction.

5 pages, 2 figures, results for V_lowk added, to appear in PRC