Abnormal nuclear matter and many-body forces

Qualitative aspects of quantum corrections to the Lee-Wick abnormal nuclear matter are studied in terms of many-body forces in the normal nuclear matter implied by the σ-model Lagrangian field theory. Using a simplified model for the scalar meson self-energy in the nuclear medium and restricting to a set of graphs which in non-relativistic normal nuclear matter reduces to the well-known random phase approximation (RPA), we have found that an abnormal nuclear state can be bound or unbound depending upon whether strongly attractive multi-body forces are present or absent in the normal matter. This is in support of our previous result obtained heuristically from some general considerations of quantum corrections. A strongly bound abnormal matter with an equilibrium density of a few times the normal nuclear matter density ρ₀ can be formed if large attractive manybody forces can be accommodated in the normal nuclear matter. However if one accepts the present status of theories of nuclear matter binding energy in which no attractive many-body forces are called for, then the abnormal state can occur only at large densities (perhaps 8 to 10 times ρ₀) and is expected to be unbound by several hundred MeV per particle.