On the Dirac Structure of the Nucleon Selfenergy in Nuclear Matter

The relativistic structure of the self-energy of a nucleon in nuclear matter is investigated including the imaginary and real components which arise from the terms of first and second order in the NN interaction. A parameterized form of Brueckner $G$ matrix is used for the NN interaction. The effects of the terms beyond the DBHF approximation on quasiparticle energies and the optical potential for nucleon-nucleus scattering are discussed.