A further update on possible crises in nuclear-matter theory

Abstract

The ancient problem of the saturation of symmetric nuclear matter is reviewed with an update on the status of the crises that were identified at an early stage by John Clark. We discuss how the initial problem with variational calculations providing more binding than the two hole-line contribution for the same interaction was overcome by calculations including three hole-line contributions without however reproducing the empirical nuclear saturation properties. It is argued that this remaining problem is still open because many solutions have been proposed or ad hoc adjustments implemented without generating universal agreement on the proper interpretation of the physics. The problem of nuclear saturation therefore persists leading to the necessity of an analysis of the way the nuclear saturation properties are obtained from experimental data. We clarify the role of short-range correlations and review results for nuclear saturation when such ingredients are completely taken into account using the Green’s function method. The role of long-range correlations is then analyzed with special emphasis on the importance of attractive pion-dominated excitation modes which inevitably lead to higher saturation densities than observed. Because such modes have no counterpart in finite nuclear systems, it is therefore argued that they should not be considered when calculating nuclear matter properties. The remaining open question is then whether long-range correlations in finite nuclei which in turn have no counterpart in infinite matter, represent the remaining missing ingredient in this analysis. We also briefly comment on the role of three-body interactions in the context of the dispersive optical model description of experimental data. It is further noted that interactions based on chiral perturbation theory at present do not generate a sufficient number of high-momentum nucleons leading to radii that are too small and substantial overbinding in finite nuclei.