It is shown that starting with a correlated wave function for nuclear matter of a general form one may make direct correspondence to the conventional diagrammatic theory of Brueckner, Bethe, and Goldstone. In particular, in this work we show that the expression for the three-body-cluster energy is the same as that obtained by Bethe. Also, it is shown that the current approximation which neglects the potential for particle states in the diagrammatic approach corresponds to a neglect of a coupling between the two-body (Bethe-Goldstone) equation and the equation for the three-body-cluster wave function (Bethe-Faddeev). The theory presented here provides a clarification of the relation of the
n-body-cluster wave functions and the structure of the wave function of the entire system.
A theory of correlated wave functions for finite systems is developed which systematically neglects the contribution from three-body cluster terms. The approximation made leads to a derivation of a Bethe-Goldstone equation for finite systems which includes modified occupation probabilities and self-consistent potentials for occupied states. The absence of potentials in unoccupied states follows from the neglect of three-body cluster terms. It is also shown that a careful treatment of the Pauli principle and occupation probabilities allows the application of variational techniques.
The ladder theory, in which the Bethe-Goldstone equation for the effective potential between two scattering particles plays a central role, is well known for its satisfactory description of the short-range correlations in the homogeneous electron liquid. By solving exactly the Bethe-Goldstone equation in the limit of large transfer momentum between two scattering particles, we obtain accurate results for the on-top pair-correlation function
g(0), in both three dimensions and two dimensions. Furthermore, we prove, in general, that the ladder theory satisfies the cusp condition for the pair-correlation function
g(r) at zero distance
r=0.