Systematic study of the symmetry energy coefficient in finite nuclei

The symmetry energy coefficients in finite nuclei have been studied systematically with a covariant density functional theory (DFT) and compared with the values calculated using several available mass tables. Due to the contamination of shell effect, the nuclear symmetry energy coefficients extracted from the binding energies have large fluctuations around the nuclei with double magic numbers. The size of this contamination is shown to be smaller for the nuclei with larger isospin value. After subtracting the shell effect with the Strutinsky method, the obtained nuclear symmetry energy coefficients with different isospin values are shown to decrease smoothly with the mass number $A$ and are subsequently fitted to the relation $\dfrac{4a_{\rm sym}}{A}=\dfrac{b_v}{A}-\dfrac{b_s}{A^{4/3}}$. The resultant volume $b_v$ and surface $b_s$ coefficients from axially deformed covariant DFT calculations are $121.73$ and $197.98$ MeV respectively. The ratio $b_s/b_v=1.63$ is in good agreement with the value derived from the previous calculations with the non-relativistic Skyrme energy functionals. The coefficients $b_v$ and $b_s$ corresponding to several available mass tables are also extracted. It is shown that there is a strong linear correlation between the volume $b_v$ and surface $b_s$ coefficients and the ratios $b_s/b_v$ are in between $1.6-2.0$ for all the cases.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Does a proton "bubble" structure exist in the low-lying states of 34Si?

The possible existence of a "bubble" structure in the proton density of $^{34}$Si has recently attracted a lot of research interest. To examine the existence of the "bubble" structure in low-lying states, we establish a relativistic version of configuration mixing of both particle number and angular momentum projected quadrupole deformed mean-field states and apply this state-of-the-art beyond relativistic mean-field method to study the density distribution of the low-lying states in $^{34}$Si. An excellent agreement with the data of low-spin spectrum and electric multipole transition strengths is achieved without introducing any parameters. We find that the central depression in the proton density is quenched by dynamic quadrupole shape fluctuation, but not as significantly as what has been found in a beyond non-relativistic mean-field study. Our results suggest that the existence of proton "bubble" structure in the low-lying excited $0^+_2$ and $2^+_1$ states is very unlikely.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures and 1 table, accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Low-lying states in 30^{30}Mg: a beyond relativistic mean-field investigation

The recently developed model of three-dimensional angular momentum projection plus generator coordinate method on top of triaxial relativistic mean-field states has been applied to study the low-lying states of $^{30}$Mg. The effects of triaxiality on the low-energy spectra and E0 and E2 transitions are examined.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, talk presented at the 17th nuclear physics conference "Marie and Pierre Curie" Kazimierz Dolny, 22-26th September 2010, Polan