We closely investigate NN potentials based upon the Delta-full version of chiral effective field theory. We find that recently constructed NN potentials of this kind, which (when applied together with three-nucleon forces) were presented as predicting accurate binding energies and radii for a range of nuclei from A=16 to A=132 and providing accurate equations of state for nuclear matter, yield a chi^2/datum of 60 for the reproduction of the pp data below 100 MeV laboratory energy. We compare this result with the first semi-quantitative $NN$ potential ever constructed in the history of mankind: the Hamada-Johnston potential of the year of 1962. It turns out that the chi^2 for the new Delta-full potentials is more than three times what was already achieved some 60 years ago. In fact, there has not been any known NN potential during the entire history of nuclear forces with a chi^2 as large as the ones of these recent Delta-full potentials of the Gothenburg-Oak Ridge group of the year of 2020. We perceive this historical fact as highly disturbing in view of the current trend for which the term precision has become the most frequently used label to characterize contemporary advances in microscopic nuclear structure physics. We are able to trace the very large chi^2 as well as the apparent success of the potentials in nuclear structure to unrealistic predictions for P-wave states, in which the Delta-full NNLO potentials are off by up to 40 times the NNLO truncation errors. In fact, we show that, the worse the description of the P-wave states, the better the predictions in nuclear structure. Misleading results of the above kind are unhelpful to the communitys efforts in microscopic nuclear structure, because they obscure a correct understanding of the nature of the remaining problems and, thus, hamper sincere attempts towards genuine solutions.
Download