MICROSCOPIC THEORY OF THE NUCLEAR-EQUATION OF STATE

The present status of the microscopic foundation of the nuclear Equati on of State is briefly reviewed. At zero temperature, considerable pro gress has been done in the last few years in identifying the main phys ical effects which determine the nuclear saturation curve, at least fo r not too high densities. Besides the many-body correlations, originat ing from the bare two-nucleon interactions, three-body forces, meson r enormalization and non-nucleonic degrees of freedom appear to be of sp ecial relevance. However, due to the complexity of the problem, a comp lete solution is still missing. At finite temperature, only very few s tudies have been presented till now. It is pointed out that the phenom enology on hot nuclei, obtained in heavy ion collisions, could be used as a Check for different microscopic theories of the nuclear Equation of State.