Renormalized Hartree-Fock equations in a nuclear relativistic quantum field theory

Renormalized Hartree-Fock equations are derived for an infinite system of mesons and baryons in the framework of a relativistic quantum field theory. Direct and exchange diagrams in the baryon propagator are summed self-consistently to all orders, and the effects of occupied negative-energy states in the Dirac sea are included. The required counterterm subtractions are defined by conventional renormalization conditions, but they need not be evaluated explicitly. The result is a set of finite nonlinear integral equations for the baryon self-energy that includes vacuum fluctuation effects from virtual N$\text{N}$ pairs in the many-body wavefunction at finite density.