Skyrmions and the Nuclear Force

The derivation of the nucleon-nucleon force from the Skyrme model is reexamined. Starting from previous results for the potential energy of quasistatic solutions, we show that a calculation using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation properly taking into account the mixing of nucleon resonances, leads to substantial central attraction. We obtain a potential that is in qualitative agreement with phenomenological potentials. We also study the non-adiabatic corrections, such as the velocity dependent transition potentials, and discuss their importance.