Density-dependent effective nucleon-nucleon interaction from chiral three-nucleon forces

Abstract

We derive density-dependent corrections to the in-medium nucleon-nucleon interaction from the leading-order chiral three-nucleon force. To this order there are six distinct one-loop diagrams contributing to the in-medium nucleon-nucleon scattering $T$ matrix. Analytic expressions are presented for each of these in both isospin-symmetric nuclear matter and nuclear matter with a small isospin asymmetry. The results are combined with the low-momentum nucleon-nucleon potential ${V}_{\mathrm{low} k}$ to obtain an effective density-dependent interaction suitable for nuclear structure calculations. The in-medium interaction is decomposed into partial waves up to orbital angular momentum $L=2$. Our results should be particularly useful in calculations where an exact treatment of the chiral three-nucleon force would otherwise be computationally prohibitive.