Three-body mesonic retardation effect

Abstract
We reconsider the three-body mesonic retardation effect, i.e., the three-nucleon force arising from the exchange of two pions within overlapping time intervals. It is shown that it cancels out against the relativistic correction term of the twice-iterated one-pion-exchange two-nucleon potential and should therefore not be taken into account. A cancellation of the same type takes place also in any other two-meson-exchange three-body potential.