The Theory of Hydrogen Three

The binding energy of the triton has been calculated by the variational method. The forces between the particles are assumed to be charge independent and to be composed of central and tensor parts, the radial dependence of each being given by Yukawa wells. The binding energy calculation is employed to determine the range of the tensor component; the other constants are fixed by the low energy two-body data. The effective triplet range, the percentage $D$ state in the triton, and the Coulomb energy of ${\mathrm{He}}^3$ are then predicted. The first two of these are in satisfactory agreement with experiment; the third is in error by twentyfive percent. The final "best" potential contains only four constants, the ranges and depths of the central and tensor potentials. The triplet and singlet central forces are equal.