Role ofρexchange in isobar contributions to the NN interaction

The fourth-order noniterative diagrams of $\pi \rho$ exchange involving nucleon-isobar intermediate states are evaluated in momentum space in the framework of noncovariant perturbation theory. It is shown that the sum of all time orderings (iterative plus noniterative) can be reasonably well approximated by twice the isoscalar piece of the iterative ones (which are much simpler to evaluate). The same approximation is used in order to describe the sum of all time orderings for the corresponding diagrams involving double-isobar intermediate states. The role of these contributions is studied in NN scattering. Especially, it is investigated whether such contributions can quantitatively replace part of the $\omega$-exchange contribution used in one-boson-exchange models.