Three-loop Corrections in a Covariant Effective Field Theory

Chiral effective field theories have been used with success in the study of nuclear structure. It is of interest to systematically improve these energy functionals (particularly that of quantum hadrodynamics) through the inclusion of many-body correlations. One possible source of improvement is the loop expansion. Using the techniques of Infrared Regularization, the short-range, local dynamics at each order in the loops is absorbed into the parameterization of the underlying effective lagrangian. The remaining nonlocal, exchange correlations must be calculated explicitly. Given that the interactions of quantum hadrodynamics are relatively soft, the loop expansion may be manageable or even perturbative in nuclear matter. This work investigates the role played by the three-loop contributions to the loop expansion for quantum hadrodynamics.