Accurate nucleon-nucleon potential with charge-independence breaking

We present a new high-quality nucleon-nucleon potential with explicit charge dependence and charge asymmetry, which we designate Argonne v₁₈. The model has a charge-independent part with 14 operator components that is an updated version of the Argonne v₁₄ potential. Three additional charge-dependent and one charge-asymmetric operators are added, along with a complete electromagnetic interaction. The potential has been fit directly to the Nijmegen pp and np scattering database, low-energy nn scattering parameters, and deuteron binding energy. With 40 adjustable parameters it gives a χ² per datum of 1.09 for 4301 pp and np data in the range 0–350 MeV.