Symmetric nuclear matter calculations: A variational approach

Abstract

We have studied nuclear matter with a new M3Y-type effective nucleon-nucleon interaction based on the lowest order constrained variational approach (LOCV) as the principal investigating tool. The chosen interaction, called B3Y-Fetal, has been used in its DDM3Y1, BDM3Y0, BDM3Y1, BDM3Y2, and BDM3Y3 density-dependent versions to reproduce the saturation properties of cold nuclear matter at the saturation density, $\ensuremath{\rho}=0.17\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{fm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. Such properties as the binding energy per nucleon, also called the equation of state (EOS), and the incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter have been computed, with results proving to be acceptably in agreement with previous work done with the M3Y-Paris and M3Y-Reid interactions by other researchers. Insightful information on symmetric nuclear matter obtained from the folding analysis in this work has shown it to be possibly governed by a soft EOS.