Benchmarking nuclear energy density functionals with new mass data

TL;DR

This paper benchmarks various nuclear energy density functionals against newly measured nuclear mass data, demonstrating that PC-PK1 and PC-L3R functionals outperform others with higher accuracy in mass predictions.

Contribution

The study introduces a comprehensive benchmarking of recent nuclear mass data with multiple density functionals, highlighting the superior performance of PC-PK1 and PC-L3R using advanced DRHBc calculations.

Findings

PC-PK1 and PC-L3R achieve <1.5 MeV accuracy

Other functionals have RMS deviations >2 MeV

Both functionals show similar isospin dependence

Abstract

Nuclear masses play a crucial role in both nuclear physics and astrophysics, driving sustained efforts toward their precise experimental determination and reliable theoretical prediction. In this work, we compile the newly measured masses for 296 nuclides from 40 references published between 2021 and 2024, subsequent to the release of the latest Atomic Mass Evaluation. These data are used to benchmark the performance of several relativistic and non-relativistic density functionals, including PC-PK1, TMA, SLy4, SV-min, UNEDF1, and the recently proposed PC-L3R. Results for PC-PK1 and PC-L3R are obtained using the state-of-the-art deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc), while the others are adopted from existing literature. It is found that the DRHBc calculations with PC-PK1 and PC-L3R achieve an accuracy better than 1.5 MeV, outperforming the other functionals, which all exhibit root-mean-square deviations exceeding 2 MeV. The odd-even effects and isospin dependence in these theoretical descriptions are examined. The PC-PK1 and PC-L3R descriptions are qualitatively similar, both exhibiting robust isospin dependence along isotopic chains. Finally, a quantitative comparison between the PC-PK1 and PC-L3R results is presented, with their largest discrepancies analyzed in terms of potential energy curves from constrained DRHBc calculations.