https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2018-12391-4
Review
Heavy nuclei: Introduction to density functional theory and variations on the theme⋆
1
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
2
INFN, Sezione di Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133, Milano, Italy
* e-mail: colo@mi.infn.it
Received:
2
August
2018
Accepted:
14
October
2018
Published online:
31
December
2018
Density Functional Theory (DFT) is based on the rigorous Hohenberg-Kohn (HK) theorem, that has been first introduced for electronic systems but holds for all fermionic systems including atomic nuclei. Currently, DFT has reached a high level of sophistication, and represents a suitable tool for a self-consistent, quantitative description of bulk nuclear properties (like masses, radii and deformations) of all nuclei except, perhaps, the lightest ones. Furthermore, time-dependent calculations within the same framework account for the observed properties of several different types of nuclear collective motion. In this paper, we introduce these topics by assuming only a previous knowledge of general quantum mechanics and of basic nuclear phenomenology (we actually review some parts of it).
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2018