Graduate Student Seminar with Natália Calleya on Binding Energies

Understanding how neutrons and protons stick together inside a nucleus might seem like a done deal of the past however empirical mass formulas can only go so far when it comes to explaining nuclear properties. Even with other refinements throughout the years, most formulas still rely on many assumptions about the connection between nuclear matter and finite nuclei and ignore the role of nuclear density distributions to the symmetry energy – in other terms, how many neutrons can be added or removed to one isotope before it becomes unstable. To improve the hand-waving-ness of empirical formulas, I’ve developed a new energy functional that incorporates a bit more of experimental data into calculations and hoped for the best – and the results might surprise you!