Physical origin of density dependent forces of Skyrme type within the quark meson coupling model

A density dependent, effective nucleon–nucleon force of the Skyrme type is derived from the quark–meson coupling model—a self-consistent, relativistic quark level description of nuclear matter. This new formulation requires no assumption that the mean scalar field is small and hence constitutes a significant advance over earlier work. The similarity of the effective interaction to the widely used SkM∗ force encourages us to apply it to a wide range of nuclear problems, beginning with the binding energies and charge distributions of doubly magic nuclei. Finding acceptable results in this conventional arena, we apply the same effective interaction, within the Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov approach, to the properties of nuclei far from stability. The resulting two neutron drip lines and shell quenching are quite satisfactory. Finally, we apply the relativistic formulation to the properties of dense nuclear matter in anticipation of future application to the properties of neutron stars.