Nature 196, 761 - 762 (24 November 1962); doi:10.1038/196761b0

Neutron–Proton Interaction

V. K. AGRAWALA & T. V. RAMAKRISHNAN

Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.

OUR attention has been directed to a note by Y. P. Varshni on neutron–proton interaction in the deuteron (ref. 1, hereafter referred to as I). The object of this communication is to point out that the magnetic dipole interaction suggested by Varshni does not lead to a bound state of the deuteron and his method has many self-contradictions and misapprehensions. It will further be shown that the n–pscattering cross-section based on this potential turns out to be much smaller than the experimentally observed value. It fails to account for the charge independence of nuclear forces. The slight observed difference between singlet n–p and p–p scattering lengths cannot also be accounted for by purely magnetic dipolar interaction².

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