Meson exchange corrections and properties of nuclear matter and neutron matter

Abstract

A calculation of meson exchange corrections to the binding energy as function of the density is presented for nuclear matter and neutron matter. The framework is the application of non-covariant perturbation theory to a field theoretical Hamiltonian. Within a Brueckner-type approximation we restrict ourselves to the calculation of those meson exchange corrections which are due to one meson exchange and which produce no mass renormalization corrections. The results are reported in detail and the structure of the results is revealed. As a net effect, we find that our meson exchange corrections give a repulsion in nuclear matter yielding about 5 MeV less binding at the saturation point. For neutron matter, the effects are very small.