Relativistic mean field theory for finite nuclei

Relativistic mean field theory is used to describe the ground state properties of characteristic nuclei over the entire range of the periodic table, from the light doubly magic nucleus, ¹⁶O, to medium heavy spherical superfluid nuclei and, furthermore, to heavy deformed nuclei in the rare earth and actinide regions up to superheavy nuclei. A method is presented which allows a simple, selfconsistent solution of the Dirac equation for the deformed spinor fields of the nucleons and of the Klein-Gordon equation for the deformed scalar and vector fields of the mesons. Pairing correlations are taken into account in the constant gap approximation. The gap parameters are obtained from the experimental odd-even mass differences. The calculations are carried out for a number of parameter sets of meson masses and coupling constants which have been used in the literature. The set which provides the best fit to the ground-state properties of nuclear matter and to spherical doubly magic nuclei is also seen to give an excellent description of light and heavy deformed nuclei.