CENTRAL THREE-BODY FORCES IN HEAVY NUCLEI

Abstract

Three-nucleon potentials are calculated using the renormalized, static theory of Chew and Low. These potentials are used to evaluate the three-body contribution to the total energy per nucleon in nuclear matter as a function of nuclear density. It is found that while the three-body energy is greater than that predicted by unrenormalized theories by about one order of magnitude as a result of multiple-scattering effects, its dependence on the nuclear density in the region of the equilibrium density is very weak. Three-body forces are therefore not expected to change the saturation properties of nuclear matter as predicted by a hard core potential to any appreciable extent.