On mass polarization and exchange effects in nuclear three-body systems*

Using the method of Faddeev equations in configuration space the mass polarization effect is considered for three-body systems with two identical particles: AAB. We present three-body calculations for the ³H nucleus, the double-Λ(Ξ) hypernuclei, and kaonic clusters pK^-K^- and ppK^-. We show that competition between the mass polarization contribution to the kinetic energy and the term related to the exchange of identical particles leads to two opposite relations between B₃(V_AA=0) and 2B₂,  where B₃(V_AA=0) is the three-body energy of a system, when the interaction between identical particles is omitted, 2B₂ is the binding energy of AB subsystem. The mass ratio m_A/m_B affects the mass polarization contribution and AB potential strength affects the exchange term directly. The latter also depends on the Clebsch–Gordan coefficients of spin/isospin state of the system. For bosonic-like systems B₃(V_AA=0)>2B₂,  for systems complicated by spin/isospin dependence, the relation B₃(V_AA=0)<2B₂ is satisfied for the wide range of mass ratio. The last relation allows us to estimate the quasi-bound state energy of three-body kaonic clusters. The effect of variation of  AB potential strength for hypernuclear and kaonic systems is studied.