Nuclear saturation in a relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach

Within the framework of a relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) approach the equation of state for nuclear matter has been determined. The relativistic extension of the nonrelativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock method effectively leads to more repulsion in nuclear matter. This additional repulsion is necessary to describe quantitatively the empirical saturation point in nuclear matter. Our parameterfree RBHF approach agrees very well with a recent determination of the equation of state at higher densities by Stock et al., too. (orig.)