Three-body properties in nuclear matter at thermal equilibrium - art. no. 034004

We derive three-body equations valid at finite densities and temperatures. The equations are based on the cluster mean field approach consistently inc luding proper self-energy corrections and Pauli blocking. As an application we investigate the binding energies of triton and determine the Mott densi ties and momenta relevant for a many particle description of nuclear matter in a generalized Bethe-Uhlenbeck approach. The method, however, is not res tricted to nuclear physics problems but map also be relevant, e.g., to trea t three-particle correlations in weakly doped semiconductors or strongly co upled dense plasmas. [S0556-2813(99)06708-4].