NN interaction in a Goldstone boson exchange model -: art. no. 055207

Adiabatic nucleon-nucleon potentials are calculated in a six-quark nonrelativistic chiral constituent quark model where the Hamiltonian contains a linear confinement and a pseudoscalar meson (Goldstone boson) exchange interaction between quarks. Calculations are performed both in a cluster model and a molecular orbital basis, through coupled channels. In both cases the potentials present an important hard core at short distances, explained through the dominance of the [51](FS) configuration, but do not exhibit an attractive pocket. We add a scalar meson exchange interaction and show how it can account for some middle range attraction. [S0556-2813(99)04510-0].