The single particle potential in nuclear matter

The energy dependent real part of the optical potential for particles and holes in nuclear matter is calculated from a realistic nuclear hamiltonian that explains the nucleon-nucleon scattering data and equilibrium properties of nuclear matter. The variational method is used with Fermi-hypernetted and single-operator-chain summation techniques. The results are comparable with empirical Woods-Saxon well depths at energies ? 150 MeV. At higher energies the potential has a density dependence suggesting a “wine-bottle” shaped nucleon-nucleus potential.