ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of the properties of dense matter treated in the relativistic ladder approximation to the T-matrix. It summarizes those many-body equations that determine the properties of nuclear matter and neutron star matter for this approximation. These matter equations will be solved up to intermediate nuclear densities higher than the density of nuclear matter. The chapter shows that relativistic nuclear matter calculations with inclusion of dynamical two-body correlations require knowledge of the effective scattering matrix T in the nuclear-matter frame. In contrast to the analysis of the properties of asymmetric nuclear matter, the treatment of neutron star matter requires imposing the additional conditions of electric charge neutrality and ß-equilibrium on the relativistic BHF method. The chapter presents the calculations of asymmetric nuclear matter as well as chemically equilibrated neutron star matter performed in the relativistic BHF approximation.
