Symmetry energy of nuclear matter and isovector three-particle interactions

We present a study of the symmetry energy (a_s) and its slope parameter (L) of nuclear matter in the general framework of the Landau-Migdal theory. We derive an exact relation between a_s and L, which involves the nucleon effective mass and three-particle Landau-Migdal parameters. We also present simple estimates which show that there are two main mechanisms to explain the empirical values of L: The proton-neutron effective mass difference in isospin asymmetric matter, and the isovector three-body Landau-Migdal parameter H_0. We give simple estimates of both effects and show that they are of similar magnitude.