TENSOR MESONS AND THE ONE BOSON EXCHANGE MODEL

The extant estimates for the coupling constants of the lightest spin-two mesons to nucleons imply that the exchange of f2(1270) mesons contributes strongly to the nucleon-nucleon interaction at short range, whereas the a2(1320) exchange mechanism is insignificant. The similarity in form of the tensor and vector meson exchange contributions to the main components of the nucleon-nucleon interaction suggests that most of the f2(1270) exchange interaction is included in the effective vector meson component of phenomenological boson exchange interactions. The tensor and vector meson exchange contributions differ qualitatively only in the case of the quadratic spin-orbit interaction. Hence a large tensor meson exchange contribution should be visible in the spin-orbit splitting of the P-waves.