Density Functional Formalism in Relativistic Nuclear Mean Field Theory

Abstract

The description of nuclear structure has been traditionally approached by solving a non-relativistic many-body Schrödinger equation which involves nucleons interacting through static potentials. This has been done within the Hartree-Fock (HF) approximation, where the many-body wave function of the system is replaced by a Slater determinant of single-particle wave functions obtained in a self-consistent way from the mean field produced by the nucleons themselves. Important progress has also been made in the microscopic approach to nuclear matter, mainly along the lines of the Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone many-body theory [1]. A quantitative microscopic description of finite nuclei, however, has so far only been possible on a phenomenological level. Effective density-dependent interactions with only a few free adjustable parameters, like the Skyrme force [2], have been constructed in order to account for the observed nuclear properties. Such density-dependent Hartree-Fock (DDHF) scheme has been able not only to yield excellent ground-state properties of both spherical and deformed nuclei, but also to describe dynamical phenomena, like fission, heavy ion collisions at low and intermediate energy or nuclear excitation spectra [3].