Nuclear matter as a Fermi liquid
Helmut Hofmann
Abstract
Abstract This chapter discusses the significance of two body interactions to many-body properties, beginning with a schematic model showing the relevance of short-range correlations beyond those of the Fermi gas. These correlations are studied within Brueckner theory and the help of the Bethe-Goldstone equation, mainly for nuclear matter proper but extensions to finite temperature are presented. Effective forces of Skyrme type are derived through an expansion of the G-matrix to small relative momenta. This scheme hinges essentially on the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation, for which results for binding energy and equilibrium density are presented. An alternative variational method based on Jastrow functions is sketched, which demonstrates the necessity for considering effective three body forces. The concept of the nuclear equation of state is presented and parameterized by Skyrme forces with density dependent parameters. Finally, a semi-classical transport theory is presented which accounts for statistical collisions of the nucleons.