A QUARK-INDEPENDENT DESCRIPTION OF CONFINEMENT

Currently the quantitative description of confinement inside nuclear matter is exclusively limited to computer experiments, mainly on lattices, and concentrating upon calculating the static potential. There is no independent reference for comparison and support of the results, especially when it comes to the quark potential in the continuum limit. Yet, we are entitled to be optimistic, for the basic results of these calculations seem to be correct from an entirely different point of view, suggested by Manton's geometrization of Skyrme theory. The present work shows the reasons of this point of view, and offers a static potential that might serve as independent reference for comparison and endorsement of any lattice calculations, and in fact of any structural hypotheses of nuclear matter. A historical review of the pertinent key moments in the history of modeling of nuclear matter, as well as an outlook anticipating the necessary future work, close the argument.