Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock versus chiral effective field theory

Abstract

We compare nuclear and neutron matter predictions based on two different ab initio approaches to nuclear forces and the nuclear many-body problem. The first consists of a realistic meson-theoretic nucleon-nucleon potential together with the relativistic counterpart of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory of nuclear matter. The second is based on chiral effective field theory, with density-dependent interactions derived from leading-order chiral three-nucleon forces. We find the results to be very close and conclude that both approaches contain important features governing the physics of nuclear and neutron matter. © 2012 American Physical Society.