Does nuclear matter bind at large $N_c$?

Understand

The existence of nuclear matter at large $N_{c}$ is investigated in the framework of effective hadronic models of the Walecka type.

• This issue is strongly related to the nucleon-nucleon attraction in the scalar channel, and thus to the nature of the light scalar mesons.
• Different scenarios for the light scalar sector correspond to different large $N_{c}$ scaling properties of the parameters of the hadronic models.
• In all realistic phenomenological scenarios for the light scalar field(s) responsible for the attraction in the scalar channel it is found that nuclear matter does not bind in the large $N_{c}$ world.