The nuclear binding energies for 28 nuclei including several isotopic chains with masses ranging from A=64 to A=226 were evaluated using the Skyrme effective nucleon-nucleon interaction and the Extended Thomas-Fermi approximation. The neutron and proton density distributions are assumed in the form of Fermi functions the parameters of which are determined so as to minimize the total binding energy of any given nucleus. The present study is restricted to quadrupole shapes, but the neutron and proton density distributions are free to have different deformations. A simple expression for the variation of the nuclear energy with the neutron--proton deformation difference is derived.
The isoscalar proton-neutron pairing and isovector pairing, including both isovector proton-neutron pairing and like-particle pairing, are treated in a formalism which conserves exactly the particle number and the isospin. The formalism is designed for self-conjugate (N=Z) systems of nucleons moving in axially deformed mean fields and interacting through the most general isovector and isoscalar pairing interactions. The ground state of these systems is described by a superposition of two types of condensates, i.e., condensates of isovector quartets, built by two isovector pairs coupled to the total isospin T=0, and condensates of isoscalar proton-neutron pairs. The comparison with the exact solutions of realistic isovector-isoscalar pairing Hamiltonians shows that this ansatz for the ground state is able to describe with high precision the pairing correlation energies. It is also shown that, at variance with the majority of Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations, in the present formalism the isovector and isoscalar pairing correlations coexist for any pairing interactions. The competition between the isovector and isoscalar proton-neutron pairing correlations is studied for N=Z nuclei with the valence nucleons moving in the $sd$ and $pf$ shells and in the major shell above $^{100}$Sn. We find that in these nuclei the isovector pairing prevail over the isoscalar pairing, especially for heavier nuclei. However, the isoscalar proton-neutron correlations are significant in all nuclei and they always coexist with the isovector pairing correlations.
Longitudinal ternary and binary fission barriers of $^{36}$Ar, $^{56}$Ni and $^{252}$Cf nuclei have been determined within a rotational liquid drop model taking into account the nuclear proximity energy. For the light nuclei the heights of the ternary fission barriers become competitive with the binary ones at high angular momenta since the maximum lies at an outer position and has a much higher moment of inertia.
The relationship between the volume and surface energy coefficients in the liquid drop A^{-1/3} expansion of nuclear masses is discussed. The volume and surface coefficients in the liquid drop expansion share the same physical origin and their physical connection is used to extend the expansion with a curvature term. A possible generalization of the Wigner term is also suggested. This connection between coefficients is used to fit the experimental nuclear masses. The excellent fit obtained with a smaller number of parameters validates the assumed physical connection.
The neutron drop is firstly investigated in an axially symmetric harmonic oscillator (ASHO) field, whose potential strengths of different directions can be controlled artificially. The shape of the neutron drop will change from spherical to oblate or prolate according to the anisotropy of the external field. With the potential strength increasing in the axial direction, the neutron prefers to occupy the orbital perpendicular to the symmetry axis. On the contrary, the neutron likes to stay in the orbital parallel to the symmetry axis when the potential strength increases in the radial direction. Meanwhile, when the potential strength of one direction disappears, the neutron drop cannot bind together. These investigations are not only helpful to simulate the properties of neutrons in finite nuclei but also provide the theoretical predictions to the future artificial operations on the nuclei like the ultracold atom system, for a deeper realization of quantum many-body systems.
The long standing problem of neutron-proton pairing correlations is revisited by employing the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov formalism with neutron-proton mixing in both the particle-hole and particle-hole channels. We compare numerical calculations performed within this method with an exact pairing model based on the $SO(8)$ algebra. The neutron-proton mixing is included in our calculations by performing rotations in the isospin space using the isocranking technique.