Why does the recently proposed simple empirical formula for the lowest excitation energies work so well?

TL;DR

This paper investigates why a simple empirical formula effectively predicts the lowest excitation energies in even-even nuclei, aiming to understand its underlying physical basis by linking formula terms to experimental data.

Contribution

It explores the physical reasons behind the success of a simple empirical formula for excitation energies, connecting its terms to measured nuclear excitation data.

Findings

Empirical formula accurately describes excitation energy trends.

Each term of the formula can be associated with specific features of experimental data.

Provides insight into the physical basis of the empirical relationship.

Abstract

It has recently been shown that a simple empirical formula, in terms of the mass number and the valence nucleon numbers, is able to describe the main trends of the lowest excitation energies of the natural parity even multipole states up to $10^+$ in even-even nuclei throughout the entire periodic table. In an effort to understand why such a simple formula is so capable, we investigate the possibility of associating each term of the empirical formula with the specific part of the measured excitation energy graph.