Non-empirical nuclear energy functionals, pairing gaps and odd-even mass differences

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of non-empirical nuclear energy functionals based on low-momentum interactions and many-body perturbation theory, focusing on pairing gaps and odd-even mass differences.

Contribution

It introduces a scheme for constructing pairing energy functionals at first order using nuclear and Coulomb interactions, advancing non-empirical approaches.

Findings

Analysis of odd-even mass staggering physics

Importance of actual mass difference calculations

First-order approximation of pairing energy functional

Abstract

First, we briefly outline some aspects of the starting project to design non-empirical energy functionals based on low-momentum vacuum interactions and many-body perturbation theory. Second, we present results obtained within an approximation of such a scheme where the pairing part of the energy density functional is constructed at first order in the nuclear plus Coulomb two-body interaction. We discuss in detail the physics of the odd-even mass staggering and the necessity to compute actual odd-even mass differences to analyze it meaningfully.