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The potential energy associated to the interaction between nucleons has its minimum (point of equilibrium) at $r\sim 0.7 fm$, as showed in the following graph:

enter image description here

Nevertheless, there are two facts that are, apparently, in contrast with this:

  • The average distance between nucleons is $\sim 1-2 fm$
  • The average nucleon density is $\sim 0.17\,\,\ \mathrm{nucleons /fm^3}$

(These two are related because from the second follows a volume of $\sim 6 fm^2$ per nucleon which is in agreement with the average distance between nucleons)

So why is the average distance between nucleons usually greater that the $0.7 fm$ where the potential energy is minimum?

I'm aware that the "dimension" of nucleon is $\sim 1 fm$. But is this the reason why the distance between two of them cannot be much less?

CuriousMind
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    Nuclear physics is complicated and it is a mistake to take figures such as the "hard core" graph that you include in your question too literally. For a description of the nuclear physics issues that your question requires see my answer to this question: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/292913/why-is-the-density-of-the-fermi-gas-in-a-neutron-star-not-changing-the-potential/293523#293523 – Lewis Miller Jun 27 '18 at 15:05

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