Consistency of nuclear Dirac phenomenology with meson-nucleon interactions

The phenomenological relativistic theory of nuclear single-particle dynamics is reviewed and its salient characteristics discussed. The phenomenological (relativistic) potential strengths necessary to secure agreement with the usual low-energy properties of nuclei are determined. These phenomenological potentials are then related to the time-independent meson fields generated by nuclei, and it is shown by direct calculation that the potential strengths predicted on the basis of renormalized meson-nucleon couplings (as measured in, say, NN scattering) are consistent with those deduced empirically. Thus the phenomenological theory is shown to be consistent with a more microscopic approach, in agreement with the work of previous authors. The role of the ρ-meson is then examined, and it is shown that the time-independent ρ-field leads to isovector terms in both the central and spin-orbit terms of the equivalent Schrödinger potential. The signs and magnitudes of these terms agree with those determined from fits to the isobaric analogue (p, n) reactions, or to the systematics of single-particle energies.