Eur. Phys. J. A 15, 13-16 (2002)
DOI: 10.1140/epja/i2001-10215-y

A Hartree-Fock nuclear mass formula

J.M. Pearson¹, S. Goriely² and M. Samyn<sup>2

1</sup>  Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal (Québec), H3C 3J7 Canada
²  Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, CP-226, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus de la Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

pearson@lps.umontreal.ca

(Received: 21 March 2002 / Published online: 31 October 2002)

Abstract
We recall the main features of the recently published mass formula, HFBCS-1, based on the Hartree-Fock-BCS method, and compare its extrapolations out to the neutron drip line with those given by the fine-range droplet model. A new Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov mass formula, HFB-1, is described: the rms error of the fit to 1888 masses is 0.766 MeV, compared with 0 .738 MeV for HFBCS-1, but there are no substantial changes in the predictions relevant to the r-process. After a critical examination of various questions relating to the effective nucleon mass and to the requirements of the relativistic mean-field theory, we conclude that the greatest remaining ambiguity concerns the nature of the pairing force.

PACS
21.10.Dr - Binding energies and masses.
21.60.Jz - Hartree-Fock and random-phase approximations.
21.65.+f - Nuclear matter.

© Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2002