The Nuclear Thomas-Fermi Model

The statistical Thomas-Fermi model is applied to a comprehensive survey of macroscopic nuclear properties. The model uses a Seyler-Blanchard effective nucleonnucleon interaction, generalized by the addition of one momentum-dependent and one density-dependent term. The adjustable parameters of the interaction were fitted to shell-corrected masses of 1654 nuclei, to the diffuseness of the nuclear surface and to the measured depths of the optical model potential. With these parameters nuclear sizes are well reproduced, and only relatively minor deviations between measured and calculated fission barriers of 36 nuclei are found. The model determines the principal bulk and surface properties of nuclear rnatter and provides estimates for the more subtle, Droplet Model, properties. The predicted energy vs. density relation for neutron matter is in striking correspondence with the 1981 theoretical estimate of Friedman and Pandharipande [1]. Other extreme situations to which the model is applied are a study of Sn isotopes from 82Sn to 170Sn, and the rupture into a bubble configuration of a nucleus (constrained to spherical symmetry) which takes place when ZZ/A exceeds about 100.