Average ground-state energy of finite Fermi systems

M. Centelles (1) , P. Leboeuf (2) , A. G. Monastra (3) , J. Roccia (2) , P. Schuck (4) , X. Vinas (1)

1 Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Facultat de Fisica
2 LPTMS - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques
3 Institut für Theoretische Physik [Dresden]
4 IPNO - Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay

Semiclassical theories like the Thomas-Fermi and Wigner-Kirkwood methods give a good description of the smooth average part of the total energy of a Fermi gas in some external potential when the chemical potential is varied. However, in systems with a fixed number of particles N, these methods overbind the actual average of the quantum energy as N is varied. We describe a theory that accounts for this effect. Numerical illustrations are discussed for fermions trapped in a harmonic oscillator potential and in a hard wall cavity, and for self-consistent calculations of atomic nuclei. In the latter case, the influence of deformations on the average behavior of the energy is also considered.

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]; Physique Nucléaire Théorique [nucl-th]

M. Centelles, P. Leboeuf, A. G. Monastra, J. Roccia, P. Schuck, et al.. Average ground-state energy of finite Fermi systems. Physical Review C, 2006, 74, pp.034332. ⟨hal-00103898⟩