Covariant energy density functionals: nuclear matter constraints and global ground state properties

Abstract

The correlations between global description of the ground state properties (binding energies, charge radii) and nuclear matter properties of the state-of-the-art covariant energy density functionals have been studied. It was concluded that the strict enforcement of the constraints on the nuclear matter properties (NMP) defined in Ref.\ \cite{RMF-nm} will not necessary lead to the functionals with good description of the binding energies and other ground and excited state properties. In addition, it will not substantially reduce the uncertainties in the predictions of the binding energies in neutron-rich systems. It turns out that the functionals, which come close to satisfying these NMP constraints, have some problems in the description of existing data. On the other hand, these problems are either absent or much smaller in the functionals which are carefully fitted to finite nuclei but which violate some NMP constraints. This is a consequence of the fact that the properties of finite nuclei are defined not only by nuclear matter properties but also by underlying shell effects. The mismatch of phenomenological content, existing in all modern functionals, related to nuclear matter physics and the physics of finite nuclei could also be responsible.