Effects of nonlocal one-pion-exchange potential in the deuteron

The off-shell aspects of the one-pion-exchange potential (OPEP) are discussed. Relativistic Hamiltonians containing relativistic kinetic energy, relativistic OPEP with various off-shell behaviors, and Argonne v₁₈ short-range parametrization are used to study the deuteron wave functions. The OPEP off-shell behaviors depend on whether a pseudovector or pseudoscalar pion-nucleon coupling is used and are characterized by a parameter μ. We study potentials having μ=-1, 0, and +1 and we find that they are nearly unitarily equivalent. We also find that a nonrelativistic Hamiltonian containing local potentials and nonrelativistic kinetic energy provides a good approximation to a Hamiltonian containing a relativistic OPEP based on pseudovector pion-nucleon coupling and relativistic kinetic energy.