Charge Asymmetry Effects and the Trinucleon Binding-Energy Difference

Abstract

We demonstrate, using a separable-potential model, that the discrepancy between the observed ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{H}$-${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{He}$ binding-energy difference and the calculated Coulomb energy does not necessarily imply that $\left|a_{nn}\mathrm{}\right|>\mathrm{}\left|\mathrm{}{a}_{pp}\right|$. This possibility arises from the relative insensitivity of the trinucleon binding energy to the scattering length as compared to the sensitivity to the effective range.