Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations are performed for nuclear matter with a
n exact treatment of the Pauli exclusion operator in the Bethe-Goldstone eq
uation. The differences in the calculated binding energy, compared to the a
ngle-average approximation, which is commonly used, are non-negligible. The
se differences exhibit a specific density dependence, which shifts the calc
ulated saturation point towards smaller densities. This effect is observed
for various versions of modern models for the nucleon-nucleon interaction.
[S0556-2813(99)02605-9].