Improved nuclear mass formula with an additional term from the Fermi gas model

Abstract

Nuclear mass is a fundamental property of nuclear physics and a necessary input in nuclear astrophysics. Owing to the complexity of atomic nuclei and nonperturbative strong interactions, conventional physical models cannot completely describe nuclear binding energies. In this study, the mass formula was improved by considering an additional term from the Fermi gas model. All nuclear masses in the Atomic Mass Evaluation Database were reproduced with a root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of \(\sim\)1.86 MeV (1.92 MeV). The new mass formula exhibits good performance in the neutron-rich nuclear region. The RMSD decreases to 0.393 MeV when the ratio of the neutron number to the proton number is \(\ge\)1.6.