A nuclear matter description based on quark structure of the nucleon and pion exchange

We investigate the possibility to describe nuclear matter in an approach constrained by the prominent features of quantum chromodynamics. We mapped the in-medium nucleon self-energies of a point coupling relativistic mean-field model on self-energies obtained in effective theories of QCD. More precisely, the contributions to the nucleon self-energy have been separated into the short range part, driven principally by the quark structure of the nucleon described in a quark–diquark picture, and the long range part, dictated by pion dynamics and determined using in-medium chiral perturbation theory. A saturation point, although unrealistic, is obtained without any free parameter. A realistic description of nuclear matter saturation properties has been obtained with the inclusion of a small phenomenological correction term to the short range part of the self-energy.