α-particle (quartet) condensation in homogeneous spin-isospin symmetric nuclear matter is investigated. The usual Thouless criterion for the critical temperature is extended to the quartet case. The in-medium four-body problem is strongly simplified by the use of a momentum-projected mean-field ansatz for the quartet. The self-consistent single-particle wave functions are shown and discussed for various values of the density at the critical temperature. Excellent agreement of the critical temperature with a numerical solution of the Faddeev-Yakubovsky equation is obtained.

• Received 6 January 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.79.051301