Energy-Density Functional Formalism in Nuclear Physics

Abstract

The nature of the energy-density functional (EDF) relevant to the calculation of various macroscopic properties of nuclei is discussed. Nuclear masses calculated by the EDF method using density distribution functions deduced from electron scattering and μ-mesic data are in very good agreement with the observed masses. The potentials between two nuclei calculated from the EDF method are in agreement with those needed to account for angular distributions in eleastic scattering. A simple prescription to scale the potential using the EDF approach as a guide is given and found successful in many cases. The EDF calculations indicate the existance of an external barrier between the saddle and scission points. Incorporation of such a barrier in the fission process can account for the observed half-lives, mass, charge, and total kinetic energy distributions and provides an understanding of cold fission.