Abstract
The phenomenological description of the nucleon-nucleon interaction in terms of a static potential is reviewed. The scattering cross sections at various energies from 28 to 340 MeV is calculated from various assumed potential models and compared with the experimental results.
It is shown that fair agreement may be obtained for n-p scattering with a potential model having no interaction in the odd parity states and a `long-tailed' radial dependence. The predicted total cross sections are some 20% too high, suggesting either that the potential may become repulsive at short distances or that the potential description breaks down in S states at high energies.
Proton-proton scattering results require a large fraction of the total scattering at high energies to be in the odd parity states. These odd parity forces definitely are of a non-central character. An extremely strong interaction at short distances is required which may take the form of a repulsive core in the singlet state or may be of a tensor nature in the triplet states.
A charge independent nuclear force is not indicated; however, the possibility of finding such a formulation has not been eliminated. Possible models are suggested, but at the present time more theoretical work is needed before a definite conclusion can be reached.
A summary of the knowledge of the interaction in all the various independent n-p and p-p states is reviewed.
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