The nucleon-nucleon potential in the chromodielectric soliton model: Statics.

We study the nucleon-nucleon interaction in the framework of the chromodielectric soliton model (CDM). Here, the long-range parts of the nonabelian gluon self-interactions are assumed to give rise to a color-dielectric function which is parameterized in terms of an effective scalar background field. The six-quark system is confined in a deformed mean field through an effective nonlinear interaction between the quarks and the scalar field. The CDM is covariant, respects chiral invariance, leads to absolute color confinement and is free of the spurious long range Van der Waals forces which trouble non-relativistic investigations employing a confining potential. Six-quark molecular-type configurations are generated as a function of deformation and their energies are evaluated in a coupled channel analysis. By using molecular states instead of cluster model wave functions, all important six-quark configurations are properly taken into account. The corresponding Hamiltonian includes the effective interaction between the quarks and the scalar background field and quark-quark interactions generated through one gluon exchange treated in