The Jastrow correlation function method in the relativistic Hartree–Fock model for nuclear matter

Abstract

We study the properties of nuclear matter with the Jastrow correlation function method in the relativistic Hartree–Fock framework. We correlate the strong repulsive effect between two nucleons in a short-range region by taking the Jastrow correlation function on the nucleon trial wavefunction. This correlation function is determined by the variational principle for the total binding energy of the nuclear many-body system. We find that the equation of state of pure neutron matter with a realistic nucleon–nucleon potential, Bonn potential, is overestimated as compared with the one in the relativistic Brueckner–Hartree–Fock model. It is caused by the energy contribution from the short-range correlation on the kinetic energy, which is calculated explicitly in our method. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the Jastrow correlation function method plays the same role as another short-range correlation method, unitary correlation operator method, for the nucleon–nucleon potential in relativistic Hartree–Fock theory. For the symmetric nuclear matter, the binding energy at the saturation density is weaker than the empirical data for the lack of tensor effect in the Hartree–Fock model.