A variational calculation of nuclear binding energies

Abstract

We show that the interaction energy of a nuclear system interacting with a central Yukawa plus a velocity-dependent δ-function two-body interaction can be reasonably approximated as a function of the local densities. The resulting expressions bear general resemblance with the Weiszsacker semi-empirical mass law. A simple variational calculation is carried out with these expressions for the 4He, 16O, 40Ca and 56Ni nuclei and nuclear matter. The calculated binding energies and radii are in excellent agreement with the experimental data.