LOCV calculation of nuclear matter with phenomenological two-nucleon interaction operators

The lowest-order constrained variational (LOCV) method is developed for the wide range of phenomenological two-nucleon interaction operators such as , and U potentials. The calculation is performed for both nuclear and neutron matter with the state-dependent correlation operators. The validity of our lowest-order approximation is tested by calculating the three-body cluster energy with the state-averaged correlation functions. It is shown that while the three-body cluster energy improves the nuclear matter saturation density, the LOCV method still overbinds nuclear matter with the above potentials. Finally, we find that our LOCV results are similar to those calculations which have been performed by using more sophisticated many-body techniques.