Symmetry-unrestricted Skyrme mean-field study of heavy nuclei

TL;DR

This paper introduces MOCCa, a new computational tool for symmetry-unrestricted Skyrme mean-field calculations, enabling detailed studies of exotic nuclear configurations with broken symmetries, exemplified by the fission barrier of radium-226.

Contribution

Development of MOCCa, a flexible code for symmetry-unrestricted Skyrme mean-field calculations, incorporating full Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov pairing and applied to heavy nuclei.

Findings

Successful calculation of the static fission barrier of $^{226}$Ra.

Demonstration of the code's capability to handle complex symmetry-breaking configurations.

Application to various Skyrme parameterizations for extended nuclear studies.

Abstract

In the light of recent experimental developments, increasing attention is devoted to nuclear phenomena related to rotational excitations of exotic intrinsic nuclear configurations that often lack symmetries present in the majority of nuclei. Examples include configurations with a non-vanishing octupole moment. In order to describe this kind of states, we have developed a new computer code to solve the self-consistent mean-field equations, able to use most of today's effective Skyrme interactions and working in coordinate-space. We report on the development of MOCCa, a code based on the same principles as EV8, but offering the user individual control on many symmetry assumptions. In addition, the HF+BCS pairing treatment of EV8 has been generalised to the full machinery of Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov transformations. We discuss as example the static fission barrier of $^{226}$Ra, prefacing extended studies in the region, using the recent series of Skyrme parameterizations SLy5s1 through SLy5s8.