Abstract: | Nuclear matter properties are calculated in a first-order Brueckner-Bethe calculation using a one-boson exchange potential recently proposed by the authors, in which the phenomenological cutoff of dipole type used so far has been replaced by a form factor obtained from an eikonal approximation to multiple vector meson exchange processes. We find ?23.5 MeV saturation energy at a Fermi momentum kF = 1.77 fm?1, i.e. about 12 MeV more binding than realistic OBEP using dipole-type cutoffs and about 8 MeV overbinding compared to the empirical value of 16 MeV. On the other hand, estimates suggest that, compared to the Reid soft-core potential, this new OBEP predicts about 1.5 MeV more binding in the case of the triton and about 4 MeV more binding in the case of 16O, i.e. gives nearly the correct empirical result. The additional binding is traced back to the small deuteron D-state probability of 4.32% predicted by this OBEP, which is a consequence of the special structure of the eikonal form factor. However, taking the effect of the Δ-resonance into account recently given by Green and Niskanen, one arrives at ?14 MeV saturation energy for nuclear matter at kF = 1.36 fm?1, whereas the results for the triton and 16O are changed to a negligible extent only. |