Addressing spectroscopic quality of covariant density functional theory

Abstract

The spectroscopic quality of covariant density functional theory has been accessed by analyzing the accuracy and theoretical uncertainties in the description of spectroscopic observables. Such analysis is first presented for the energies of the single-particle states in spherical and deformed nuclei. It is also shown that the inclusion of particle-vibration coupling improves the description of the energies of predominantly single-particle states in medium and heavy-mass spherical nuclei. However, the remaining differences between theory and experiment clearly indicate missing physics and missing terms in covariant energy density functionals. The uncertainties in the predictions of the position of two-neutron drip line sensitively depend on the uncertainties in the prediction of the energies of the single-particle states. On the other hand, many spectroscopic observables in well deformed nuclei at ground state and finite spin only weakly depend on the choice of covariant energy density functional.

Comments: 21 pages, 9 figures, Invited paper for the Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics focus section entitled "Enhancing the interaction between nuclear experiment and theory through information and statistics", in press