https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01605-6
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Two-center harmonic oscillator basis for Skyrme-DFT calculations (I): formalism and Proof of Principle
1
School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, YO10 5DD, Heslington, York, UK
2
Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
3
Brussels Laboratory of the Universe-BLU-ULB, Brussels, Belgium
4
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, ul. Pasteura 5, PL-02-093, Warsaw, Poland
a
adrian.sanchez.fernandez@ulb.be
Received:
27
February
2025
Accepted:
28
May
2025
Published online:
17
June
2025
We present a new method to solve the nuclear density functional theory (DFT) equations using a two-center harmonic oscillator for Skyrme-like functionals, incorporating pairing and Coulomb interactions. The goal is to efficiently determine the fission and fusion configurations in nuclei. The Coulomb exchange term is evaluated exactly, allowing for a novel approach to neck formation without the Slater approximation, commonly used in space coordinate-based approaches. The new method has been implemented in the code hfodd, enabling direct comparison with standard one-center solutions. This first paper focuses on deriving and implementing a methodology based on stable, precise, and exact applications of harmonic oscillator bases for the two fragments, which can either overlap or be separated by arbitrarily large distances. The implementation is tested on two proof-of-principle examples using light nuclei, specifically, 
Be and 
Mg.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
