The alpha particle in nuclear matter

Abstract Among the light nuclear clusters the α -particle is by far the strongest bound system and therefore expected to play a significant role in the dynamics of nuclei and the phases of nuclear matter. To systematically study the properties of the α -particle we have derived an effective four-body equation of the Alt–Grassberger–Sandhas (AGS) type that includes the dominant medium effects, i.e. self energy corrections and Pauli-blocking in a consistent way. The equation is solved utilizing the energy dependent pole expansion for the subsystem amplitudes. We find that the Mott transition of an α -particle at rest differs from that expected from perturbation theory and occurs at approximately 1/10 of nuclear matter densities.