Nucleon self-energies in nuclear matter are studied by analyzing the correlator of nucleon interpolating fields using QCD sum-rule methods. Large Lorentz scalar and vector self-energies arise naturally, and are comparable to the optical potentials of Dirac phenomenology. The key phenomenological inputs are the baryon density and the value of the nucleon σ term.

• Received 18 January 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.67.961