We review the main achievements of the research programme for the study of nuclear forces in the framework of chiral symmetry and discuss some problems which are still open.
Charge independence and symmetry are approximate symmetries of nature. The observations of the small symmetry breaking effects and the consequences of those effects are reviewed. The effects of the mass difference between up and down quarks and the o
ff shell dependence $q^2$ of $rho^0$-$omega$ mixing are stressed. In particular, I argue that models which predict a strong $q^2$ dependence of $rho^0$-$omega$ mixing seem also to predict a strong $q^2$ variation for the $rho^0$-$gamma^*$ matrix element, in contradiction with experiment.
The energy- and density-dependent single-particle potential for nucleons is constructed in a medium of infinite isospin-symmetric nuclear matter starting from realistic nuclear interactions derived within the framework of chiral effective field theor
y. The leading-order terms from both two- and three-nucleon forces give rise to real, energy-independent contributions to the nucleon self-energy. The Hartree-Fock contribution from the two-nucleon force is attractive and strongly momentum dependent, in contrast to the contribution from the three-nucleon force which provides a nearly constant repulsive mean field that grows approximately linearly with the nuclear density. Together, the leading-order perturbative contributions yield an attractive single-particle potential that is however too weak compared to phenomenology. Second-order contributions from two- and three-body forces then provide the additional attraction required to reach the phenomenological depth. The imaginary part of the optical potential, which is positive (negative) for momenta below (above) the Fermi momentum, arises at second-order and is nearly inversion-symmetric about the Fermi surface when two-nucleon interactions alone are present. The imaginary part is strongly absorptive and requires the inclusion of an effective mass correction as well as self-consistent single-particle energies to attain qualitative agreement with phenomenology.
We formulate the quark meson coupling model as a many-body effective Hamiltonian. This leads naturally to the appearance of many-body forces. We investigate the zero range limit of the model and compare its Hartree-Fock Hamiltonian to that correspond
ing to the Skyrme effective force. By fixing the three parameters of the model to reproduce the binding and symmetry energy of nuclear matter, we find that it allows a very satisfactory interpretation of the Skyrme force.
We derive a microscopic relativistic point-coupling model of nuclear many-body dynamics constrained by in-medium QCD sum rules and chiral symmetry. The effective Lagrangian is characterized by density dependent coupling strengths, determined by chira
l one- and two-pion exchange and by QCD sum rule constraints for the large isoscalar nucleon self-energies that arise through changes of the quark condensate and the quark density at finite baryon density. This approach is tested in the analysis of the equations of state for symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter, and of bulk and single-nucleon properties of finite nuclei. In comparison with purely phenomenological mean-field approaches, the built-in QCD constraints and the explicit treatment of pion exchange restrict the freedom in adjusting parameters and functional forms of density dependent couplings. It is shown that chiral (two-pion exchange) fluctuations play a prominent role for nuclear binding and saturation, whereas strong scalar and vector fields of about equal magnitude and opposite sign, induced by changes of the QCD vacuum in the presence of baryonic matter, generate the large effective spin-orbit potential in finite nuclei.
A systematic investigation of the nuclear observables related to the triaxial degree of freedom is presented using the multi-quasiparticle triaxial projected shell model (TPSM) approach. These properties correspond to the observation of $gamma$-bands
, chiral doublet bands and the wobbling mode. In the TPSM approach, $gamma$-bands are built on each quasiparticle configuration and it is demonstrated that some observations in high-spin spectroscopy that have remained unresolved for quite some time could be explained by considering $gamma$-bands based on two-quasiparticle configurations. It is shown in some Ce-, Nd- and Ge-isotopes that the two observed aligned or s-bands originate from the same intrinsic configuration with one of them as the $gamma$-band based on a two-quasiparticle configuration. In the present work, we have also performed a detailed study of $gamma$-bands observed up to the highest spin in Dysposium, Hafnium, Mercury and Uranium isotopes. Furthermore, several measurements related to chiral symmetry breaking and wobbling motion have been reported recently. These phenomena, which are possible only for triaxial nuclei, have been investigated using the TPSM approach. It is shown that doublet bands observed in lighter odd-odd Cs-isotopes can be considered as candidates for chiral symmetry breaking. Transverse wobbling motion recently observed in $^{135}$Pr has also been investigated and it is shown that TPSM approach provides a reasonable description of the measured properties.