Tensor Forces and Heavy Nuclei

It has been suggested that the interaction between a pair of nuclear particles contains, in addition to a central force term, a tensor term, and quantitative estimates of the relative magnitudes of these two terms have been given. In this paper a rough quantitative estimate of the relative contributions of these two terms to the binding energy of a nucleus is made on the basis of a highly simplified nuclear model. It is found that a tensor interaction between two nuclear particles of the form suggested by the neutral meson field theory of nuclear forces with constants determined to fit the experimental data on the two-particle neutron-proton system would lead to the existence of moderately light nuclei having binding energies, spins, and deviations from spherical shape much greater than those observed.