3-DIMENSIONAL FIELD-THEORETICAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE NUCLEON-NUCLEON POTENTIAL FROM QUARK DEGREES OF FREEDOM

Considering nucleons as bound systems of quarks the field-theoretical spectral decomposition For the NN scattering amplitude and the corresp onding relativistic three-dimensional Lippmann-Schwinger equation are derived. The resulting equations have the same form as the linearized Low equation without quark degrees of freedom. In the linearly energy- dependent potential of this equation the contributions from meson exch ange and quark-gluon exchange can be exactly separated. Some constrain ts for quark masses and quark-meson vertex Function parameters appeari ng in this general field-theoretical potential are obtained. In partic ular, it is shown, that if the sum of constituent quark masses is equa l to the nucleon mass, i.e. m(1)+m(2)+m(3)=M(N), the pure off mass-she ll one-meson exchange interaction between nucleons vanishes. Furthermo re, in this case meson-exchange interactions between quarks appear alw ays together with gluon exchange in the resulting NN potential. These results may shed further light on the problem of double counting inher ent in modern NN potentials which employ both quark and meson degrees of freedom. (C) 1997 Academic Press.