Binding energies and modelling of nuclei in semiclassical simulations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that semiclassical Monte Carlo simulations can accurately reproduce empirical nuclear binding energies by using a density-dependent Pauli potential, providing a practical approach for nuclear modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a simple method to model nuclei in semiclassical simulations by calibrating a density-dependent Pauli potential to empirical binding energies.

Findings

Empirical binding energies can be reproduced with a proper density-dependent Pauli potential.

The method provides a pragmatic way to model nuclei for various properties.

The approach is applicable across nuclei with nucleon number 8 to 100.

Abstract

We study the binding energies of spin-isospin saturated nuclei with nucleon number $8 \le A \le 100$ in semiclassical Monte Carlo many-body simulations. The model Hamiltonian consists of, (i) nucleon kinetic energy, (ii) a nucleon-nucleon interaction potential, and (iii) an effective Pauli potential which depends on density. The basic ingredients of the nucleon-nucleon potential are, a short-range repulsion, and a medium-range attraction. Our results demonstrate that one can always expect to obtain the empirical binding energies for a set of nuclei by introducing a proper density dependent Pauli potential. The present work suggests a simple, pragmatic procedure for modelling a set of nuclei calibrated by the empirical binding energies for a given NN interaction potential. Then, each set of modelled nuclei can be tested by studying other properties of nuclei in semiclassical simulations.