Global optimization of harmonic oscillator basis in covariant density functional theory

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that optimizing the harmonic oscillator basis frequency significantly improves the accuracy of binding energy calculations in covariant density functional theory, especially for meson exchange functionals.

Contribution

It introduces a method for global optimization of oscillator frequency to enhance the precision of finite basis calculations in covariant density functional theory.

Findings

Binding energy accuracy improves by a factor of 3 to 9 with optimization.

Optimized oscillator frequency yields rms differences as low as 0.025 MeV.

Method applies to various classes of covariant energy density functionals.

Abstract

The present investigation focuses on the improvement of the accuracy of the description of binding energies within moderately sized fermionic basis. Using the solutions corresponding to infinite fermionic basis it was shown that in the case of meson exchange (ME) covariant energy density functionals (CEDFs) the global accuracy of the description of binding energies in the finite $N_F=16-20$ bases can be drastically (by a factor ranging from $\approx 3$ up to $\approx 9$ dependent on the functional and $N_F$) improved by a global optimization of oscillator frequency of the basis. This is a consequence of the unique feature of the ME functionals in which with increasing fermionic basis size fermionic and mesonic energies approach the exact (infinite basis) solution from above and below, respectively. As a consequence, an optimal oscillator frequency $\hbar\omega_0$ of the basis can be defined which provides an accurate reproduction of exact total binding energies by the ones calculated in truncated basis. This leads to a very high accuracy of the calculations in moderately sized $N_F=20$ basis when mass dependent oscillator frequency is used: global rms differences $\delta B_{rms}$ between the binding energies calculated in infinite and truncated bases are only 0.025 MeV and 0.031 MeV for the NL5(Z) and DD-MEZ functionals, respectively. Optimized values of the oscillator frequency $\hbar\omega_0$ are provided for three major classes of CEDFs, i.e. for density dependent meson exchange functionals, nonlinear meson exchange ones and point coupling functionals.