Off-shell effects in O

We calculate the binding energy of ¹⁶O for a set of phase-shift-equivalent potentials previously studied in nuclear matter. Off-shell variations of up to 2.8 MeV per particle occur compared with about a 10 MeV per particle variation in nuclear matter. As in nuclear matter calculations a nearly linear relation exists between the variations in the binding-energy results and the wound integral k. We compare the ¹⁶O results with a nuclear matter calculation at the “equivalent” nuclear matter density of k_F = 1.13 fm⁻¹. This “equivalent” density reflects the fact that ¹⁶O has a surface and hence a lower average density than nuclear matter. The ¹⁶O and nuclear matter off-shell variations are comparable once one takes into account the lower average density of ¹⁶O and the suppression of the relative D-wave interaction — also a surface effect. We present a method of computing the correlated wave functions of finite nuclear systems and display such wave functions for ¹⁶O. The correlated wave functions of ¹⁶O and of nuclear matter are strikingly similar for all of the potentials studied.