Unified nuclear potential for heavy-ion elastic scattering, fusion, fission, and ground-state masses and deformations

We develop a unified nuclear potential for the description of large-scale nuclear collective motion and find that it satisfactorily reproduces experimental data for heavy-ion elastic scattering, fusion, fission, and ground-state masses. Obtained by generalizing the modified liquid-drop model so that two semi-infinite slabs of constant-density nuclear matter have minimum energy at zero separation, this potential is given in terms of a double volume integral of a Yukawa-plus-exponential folding function. For heavy nuclear systems the resulting heavy-ion interaction potential is similar to the proximity potential of Swiatecki and co-workers. However, for light nuclear systems our potential lies slightly below the proximity potential at all nuclear separations. For heavy nuclei fission barriers calculated with our Yukawa-plus-exponential model are similar to those calculated with the liquid-drop model. However, for light nuclei the finite range of the nuclear force and the diffuse nuclear surface lower the fission barriers relative to those calculated with the liquid-drop model. Use of a Wigner term proportional to $\frac{\mathrm{}|N-Z|\mathrm{}}{A}$ in the nuclear mass formula resolves the major part of the anomaly between nuclear radii derived from elastic electron scattering on the one hand and from ground-state masses and fission-barrier heights on the other.