Relativistic Self-Consistent Meson Field Theory of Spherical Nuclei

A relativistic self-consistent theory is used in conjunction with meson field potentials having the form of the generalized one-boson-exchange potentials (GOBEP) to construct a relativistic self-consistent meson field theory of nuclear structure. A simple GOBEP model with qualitative features of successful $N-N$ models, e.g., approximate cancellation of static terms arising from generalized (or regularized) scalar- and vector-meson fields, is used to calculate ground-state properties of the doubly-magic spherical nuclei ${}_{}{}^{16}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{O}$, ${}_{}{}^{40}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ca}$, ${}_{}{}^{90}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Zr}$, and ${}_{}{}^{208}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Pb}$, and one superheavy nucleus ${}_{}{}^{298}{}_{}{}^{}114$. Good agreement is obtained between theoretical and experimental total binding energies and radial charge distributions. The isotopic shift in charge distributions between the isotopes ${}_{}{}^{40}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ca}$ and ${}_{}{}^{48}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ca}$ and the single-particle eigenvalues agree quite well with the experimental numbers. The absence of explicit correlation corrections, the relationship of this model to earlier meson-theoretic descriptions, and physical interpretation in terms of nucleon form factors and relativistic interactions are discussed.