Kohn–Sham density functional inspired approach to nuclear binding

A non-relativistic nuclear density functional theory is constructed, not as done most of the time, from an effective density dependent nucleon–nucleon force but directly introducing in the functional results from microscopic nuclear and neutron matter Bruckner G-matrix calculations at various densities. A purely phenomenological finite range part to account for surface properties is added. The striking result is that only four to five adjustable parameters, spin–orbit included, suffice to reproduce nuclear binding energies and radii with the same quality as obtained with the most performant effective forces. In this pilot work, for the pairing correlations, simply a density dependent zero range force is adopted from the literature. Possible future extensions of this approach are pointed out.