Properties of odd nuclei and the impact of time-odd mean fields: A systematic Skyrme-Hartree-Fock analysis

TL;DR

This study systematically evaluates how time-odd mean fields influence the properties of odd nuclei within the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock framework, showing their effects are generally small but depend on the parameterization used.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of time-odd mean fields on odd nuclei properties across multiple Skyrme parameterizations, highlighting the importance of parameter choice.

Findings

Time-odd mean fields have a small but non-negligible effect on nuclear properties.

Proper Skyrme parameterization yields accurate binding energies for odd nuclei.

Spectral predictions vary in quality depending on the specific nucleus.

Abstract

We present a systematic analysis of the description of odd nuclei by the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach augmented with pairing in BCS approximation and blocking of the odd nucleon. Current and spin densities in the Skyrme functional produce time-odd mean fields (TOMF) for odd nuclei. Their effect on basic properties (binding energies, odd-even staggering, separation energies and spectra) is investigated for the three Skyrme parameterizations SkI3, SLy6, and SV-bas. About 1300 spherical and axially-deformed odd nuclei with 16 < Z < 92 are considered. The calculations demonstrate that the TOMF effect is generally small, although not fully negligible. The influence of the Skyrme parameterization and the consistency of the calculations are much more important. With a proper choice of the parameterization, a good description of binding energies and their differences is obtained, comparable to that for even nuclei. The description of low-energy excitation spectra of odd nuclei is of varying quality depending on the nucleus.