VARIATIONAL CALCULATIONS OF MODELS OF NUCLEAR AND NEUTRON MATTER

We report results of variational calculations of models of nuclear matter in which the nuclear interaction is approximated by a sum of central, spin, isospin and tensor forces. The models are based on realistic potentials such as those of Reid, Bethe-Johnson, Hamada-Johnston, and Gammel-Thaler. The correlation operator in the variational wave function contains central, spin, isospin and tensor terms. We briefly review the Fermi-hypernetted-chain, and single-operator-chain (SOC) methods used to calculate the energy expectation value. The energies obtained for these simple models by various variational and reaction matrix calculations seem to be in reasonable agreement. Results with the SOC approximation for the ν3 model of neutron matter, in which the interaction has only central and spin components, are also reported. These are in good agreement with the energies obtained by summing multiple operator chains. © 1979.