A new model for nuclear matter

The different values obtained for nuclear radii from electromagnetic interactions as compared with specifically nuclear interactions suggested a model of nuclear matter in which the meson field is supposed to condense into an incompressible fluid and the nucleonic sources are confined to its interior by a strong interaction between the sources and the fluid as a whole. The sources are also coupled to spin and charge fluctuations in the fluid, whose exchange leads to further internucleonic forces. It is necessary to postulate that the fluid have a comparatively low density; as a result rotational levels of the fluid are high, leading to a small probability of exchange of angular momentum (and charge coupled to it) with the sources. The values of the anomalous electrical interactions of nucleons deduced are in rough agreement with the facts. The nuclear structure indicated is a shell model embedded in the mesic fluid whose oscillations, strongly coupled to the nucleons, give rise to the collective features of nuclear structure as in the theory of Bohr and Mottelson. It is suggested that this picture of the mesic field may indicate where to look for solutions of the meson field equations. (author). 9 refs