EPJ Web of Conferences 3, 06007 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20100306007

Low density nuclear matter in effective field theory

¹ Institut für Kernphysik und Jülich Center for Hadron Physics, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
² Universität Bonn, Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik und Bethe Center for Theoretical Physics, Nußallee 14-16, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
³ Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

^a e-mail: s.krewald@fz-juelich.de

Abstract

The two- and three-nucleon interaction derived in chiral effective field theory is used to obtain the binding energy of nuclear matter for small densities at next-to-leading (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading orders (N²LO). The order N²LO is not yet sufficient to push the range of validity of the expansion beyond the empirical Fermi momentum of nuclear matter. A phenomenological extension of the interaction suggests that both effective three- and four-nucleon interactions are required for a description of the bulk properties of nuclear mater.