Systematics of light deformed nuclei in relativistic mean-field models

Abstract

Ground-state properties of even-even nuclei in the s-d shell are calculated using relativistic mean-field models of baryon-meson dynamics that include scalar meson self couplings. Axial symmetry is assumed. The systematics of intrinsic quadrupole moments are studied for a variety of parameter sets that are fitted to the same nuclear matter saturation properties. The size of the moment is strongly correlated with the nucleon effective mass ${M}^{\mathrm{*}}$ and the spin-orbit strength, but is only weakly affected by the compressibility or the surface energy. If parameter sets with accurate spin-orbit strengths are used, the trends for s-d nuclei reproduce experimental systematics and are quantitatively similar to those obtained in nonrelativistic Skyrme-Hartree-Fock calculations. The implications for quantum hadrodynamics in the mean-field (Hartree) and one-loop approximations are discussed.