The Skyrme—Hartree—Fock Model of the Nuclear Ground State

Abstract

Two decades ago, with the introduction of Skyrme forces [2.1], Hartree—Fock calculations became feasible in nuclear physics. Since then, they have been applied to a great variety of phenomena, including deformation properties, superheavy nuclei, vibrations, and heavy-ion collisions [2.2]. Nonetheless, their most straightforward application, the description of the ground state of spherical nuclei, remains a useful tool. It serves as the basis for many further applications in nuclear-structure physics; e.g., for studying refinements and variants of the force [2.3], for understanding electron-scattering data, for describing hyperons in nuclei, or for RPA vibrations of the ground-state. Thus, it is desirable to have a code optimized for speed. Such a code also provides a good example of the fast numerical techniques that are necessary for large scale applications.