The effect of three-body cluster energy on LOCV calculation for hot nuclear and neutron matter

The two-body correlation functions, obtained in a lowest-order constrained variational calculation for hot nuclear and neutron matter, with the Reid potential and the explicit inclusion of , are state averaged and used to calculate the three-body cluster energy. The three-body cluster energy is found to vary between about 1 and 2 MeV through and beyond twice the nuclear-matter saturation density for temperatures between 5 and 20 MeV. However, the inclusion of a three-body cluster reduces the nuclear-matter flashing and critical temperatures. A critical temperature of 15.8 MeV and a critical exponent of 0.35 is found. The results of entropy calculations are in good agreement with experimental prediction and other theoretical results. Finally it is shown that by allowing an explicit degree of freedom through the Reid potential up to and including the three-body clusters, the lowest-constrained variational calculation yields other nuclear- and neutron-matter properties close to the available semi-empirical and experimental data at zero and finite temperatures.