REPULSIVE SHORT-RANGE 3-NUCLEON INTERACTION

The three-nucleon interaction that is implied by the pion and the effe ctive scalar and vector meson exchange components of the nucleon-nucle on interaction arises from the excitation of intermediate nucleon-anti nucleon pairs. Using several wave-function models we show that this in teraction is repulsive, reducing the calculated binding energy of the trinucleons by about 200-300 keV. The contributions of intermediate N( 1440) resonances (and the same meson exchanges) to this three-nucleon interaction are also estimated and shown to be small.