  The effect of nucleon dressing by pions, on the binding energy of three
nucleons interacting via two-body forces, is calculated for the first time
within a conventional nuclear physics approach. It is found that the dressing
increases the binding energy of the triton by an amount approximately in the
range from 0.3 MeV to 0.9 MeV, depending on the model used for dressing. This
suggests that nucleon dressing may help explain the underestimation of the
triton binding energy in previous calculations using only two-nucleon forces.
