High precision nuclear mass predictions towards a hundred kilo-electron-volt accuracy

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Physics
• Astrophysics
• Computational Physics

Background:

• Nuclear mass is a fundamental property crucial for understanding stellar processes and element synthesis.
• Developing accurate and predictive nuclear mass models across the entire nuclear chart remains a significant challenge.
• Existing models often exhibit deviations from experimental data, necessitating improved predictive capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for accurate nuclear mass predictions.
• To analyze and identify the sources of deficiencies in current nuclear mass models.
• To improve the accuracy of nuclear mass predictions towards the chaos-related limit.

Main Methods:

• Fourier spectral analysis to map nuclear mass deviations into the frequency domain.
• Quantification of model deficiencies by analyzing contributions in the frequency space.
• Application of the radial basis function approach to isolate and quantify error sources.
• Examination of correlations between nuclear effective interactions and mass deviation distributions.

Main Results:

• The Fourier spectral analysis effectively identifies main contributions to nuclear mass model deficiencies.
• The method allows for the isolation and quantification of sources of error in mass predictions.
• Demonstrated correlation between nuclear effective interactions and mass deviation patterns in the frequency domain.
• The proposed approach paves the way for achieving kilo-electron-volt accuracy in nuclear mass predictions.

Conclusions:

• Fourier spectral analysis offers a new perspective for understanding and improving nuclear mass models.
• This technique can pinpoint specific areas of weakness in theoretical nuclear models.
• The findings suggest a pathway to significantly enhance the predictive power of nuclear mass models, approaching fundamental accuracy limits.