Further steps towards next generation of covariant energy density functionals

TL;DR

This paper advances covariant energy density functionals by incorporating infinite basis corrections and atomic effects, significantly improving the accuracy of nuclear binding energy predictions across the nuclear chart.

Contribution

It introduces the first inclusion of infinite basis corrections and atomic energy considerations into the fitting protocol of covariant density functionals, enhancing their predictive power.

Findings

Inclusion of basis corrections reduces binding energy errors by over 0.8 MeV.

Atomic effects influence neutron excess dependence in nuclear energies.

Neglecting these factors previously caused substantial calculation errors.

Abstract

The present study aims at further development of covariant energy density functionals (CEDFs) towards more accurate description of binding energies across the nuclear chart. For the first time, infinite basis corrections to binding energies in the fermionic and bosonic sectors of the covariant density functional theory have been taken into account in the fitting protocol within the covariant density functional theory. In addition, total electron binding energies have been used in the conversion of atomic binding energies into nuclear ones. Their dependence on neutron excess has been investigated for the first time across the nuclear chart within atomic approach. These factors have been disregarded in previous generation of covariant energy density functionals but their neglect leads to substantial global calculation errors for physical quantities of interest. For example, these errors for binding energies are of the order of 0.8 MeV or higher for the three major classes of covariant energy density functionals.