Nuclear Force in the Quark Cluster Model

Abstract

The application of the quark cluster model to the nucleon-nucleon interaction is reviewed. A brief discussion is given on the strongly overlapping region for two nucleons where quarks are expected to play important roles. After a short explanation of the quark cluster model, the short-range repulsion, the medium range attraction, the spin-orbit force and the short­ range tensor force are discussed both in the conventional two-body model of confinement and the recently proposed flip-flop model.