Valence particles and the correction to relativistic mean field binding energy

TL;DR

This paper investigates the discrepancies between experimental and theoretical binding energies in odd-Z nuclei within the relativistic mean field framework, highlighting the role of neutron-proton interactions and their linear relation to the Casten factor.

Contribution

It extends previous studies to odd-Z nuclei, demonstrating a linear correlation between binding energy differences and the Casten factor, emphasizing the significance of neutron-proton interactions.

Findings

Binding energy differences can be linearly parametrized by the Casten factor.

The pattern of differences in odd-Z nuclei mirrors that observed in even-Z nuclei.

Neutron-proton interaction is a major contributor to binding energy discrepancies.

Abstract

The differences between the experimental and the theoretically calculated binding energies in Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) approach have been calculated for a large number of odd-$Z$ nuclei from $A=47$ to 229. Neutron-proton (n-p) interaction is expected to be the major contributor to this difference. This difference, excluding certain mass regions and taking other effects as well as the odd-even mass difference into account, may be linearly parametrized by the Casten factor, a recognized measure of the n-p interaction in the nucleus. The results follow the same pattern as in the case of even-$Z$ nuclei observed earlier.