Pauli exclusion operator and binding energy of nuclear matter

Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations are performed for nuclear matter with an exact treatment of the Pauli exclusion operator in the Bethe-Goldstone equation. The differences in the calculated binding energy, compared to the angle-average approximation, which is commonly used, are non-negligible. These difference exhibits a specific density dependence, which shifts the calculated saturation point towards smaller densities. This effect is observed for various versions of modern models for the NN interaction.