Exploring the Nuclear Landscape by Image Reconstruction Techniques
José Iván Morales-Arredondo, Joel Mendoza-Temis, Juan Carlos Lopez Vieyra, J. Barea, Jorge G. Hirsch, A. Frank, Víctor Velázquez · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · 2007
In spite of the development of ever more elaborate techniques for the calculation of nuclear properties, the calculation of the most basic property of atomic nuclei, their mass, still represents a challenging task. The differences between measured masses and Liquid Drop Model (LDM) predictions have well known regularities. They contain information related to shell closures, nuclear deformation and the residual nuclear interactions, and display a well defined pattern, which can be viewed as a two-dimensional image. In the present work the more than 2000 known nuclear masses are studied as an array in the N-Z plane viewed through a mask, behind which the approximately 7000 unknown unstable nuclei that can exist between the proton and neutron drip lines are hidden. Employing a Fourier transform deconvolution method these masses can be predicted. Measured masses are reconstructed with and r.m.s. error of less than 100 keV. Potential applications of the present approach are outlined.