The single-particle interaction in nuclear matter via the relativistic Dirac-Brueckner approach

Within the relativistic Dirac-Brueckner approach and starting from a one-boson-exchange interaction, the nucleon selfenergy is calculated above the nuclear-matter Fermi sea. The effects of Pauli blocking and energy dispersion are studied. At low energy we see a dominance of the Pauli blocking whereas at nucleon energies up to 250 MeV the dispersive effect still has a very large influence on the single-particle interaction. From the selfenergy a Schrödinger optical potential is deduced, for which the DB results nicely agree with empirical values. The density dependence of this optical potential compares well with earlier calculations.