THE EFFECT OF 3-BODY CLUSTER ENERGY ON LOCV CALCULATION FOR HOT NUCLEAR AND NEUTRON MATTER

The two-body correlation functions, obtained in a lowest-order constra ined variational calculation for hot nuclear and neutron mater, with t he Reid potential and the explicit inclusion of Delta(1234), are state averaged and used to calculate the three-body cluster energy. The thr ee-body cluster energy is found to vary between about 1 and 2 MeV thro ugh and beyond twice the nuclear-matter saturation density for tempera tures between 5 and 20 MeV. However, the inclusion of a three-body clu ster reduces the nuclear-mater flashing and critical temperatures. A c ritical temperature of 15.8 MeV and a critical exponent of 0.35 is fou nd. The results of entropy calculations are in good agreement with exp erimental prediction and other theoretical results. Finally it is show n that by allowing an explicit Delta(1234) degree of freedom through t he Reid potential up to and including the three-body clusters, the low est-constrained variational calculation yields other nuclear- and neut ron-matter properties close to the available semi-empirical and experi mental data at zero and finite temperatures.