Nucleon–nucleon scattering observables in large-Nc QCD

Nucleon–nucleon scattering observables are considered in the context of the large N_c limit of QCD for initial states with moderately high momenta (pN_c). The scattering is studied in the framework of the time-dependent mean-field approximation. We focus on the dependence of those observables on the spin and isospin of the initial state which may be computed using time-dependent mean-field theory. We show that, up to corrections, all such observables must be invariant under simultaneous spin and isospin flips (i.e., rotations through π/2 in both spin and isospin) acting on either particle. All observables of this class obtained from spin unpolarized measurements must be isospin independent up to 1/N_c corrections. Moreover, it can be shown that the leading correction is of relative order 1/N_c² rather than 1/N_c.