Correlations in Nuclear Masses

It was recently suggested that the error with respect to experimental data in nuclear mass calculations is due to the presence of chaotic motion. The theory was tested by analyzing the typical error size. A more sensitive quantity, the correlations of the mass error between neighboring nuclei, is studied here. The results provide further support to this physical interpretation.

Figure 1

Root mean square of the difference between experimentally measured and calculated masses. Dots, squares, and crosses from the calculations of Refs. 2, 3, 4, respectively. The solid line shows the chaotic contribution, Eq. (1).

Figure 2

Correlation of the mass errors between neighboring isotopes as a function of the dimensionless parameter $\zeta$. Circles, squares, and crosses correspond to the same models as in Fig. 1. The solid line is the theoretical result Eq. (12).