Correlations in hot asymmetric nuclear matter

Abstract

The single-particle spectral functions in asymmetric nuclear matter are computed using the ladder approximation within the theory of finite temperature Green's functions. The internal energy and the momentum distributions of protons and neutrons are studied as a function of the density and the asymmetry of the system. The proton states are more strongly depleted when the asymmetry increases whereas the occupation of the neutron states is enhanced compared to the symmetric case. The self-consistent Green's function approach leads to slightly smaller energies compared to the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach. This effect increases with density and thereby modifies the saturation density and leads to smaller symmetry energies.