Nowadays the study of exotic nuclei far from the β-stability line is extremely stimulated by the development of radioactive ion beam facilities worldwide and brings opportunities and challenges to existing nuclear theories. The relativistic density functional theories have gained wide attention for successfully describing numerous nuclear phenomena. In particular, by self-consistently taking the deformation, pairing correlations, and continuum effects into account, the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc) has achieved great successes not only in stable nuclei but also in exotic nuclei. In light of the first nuclear mass table including the continuum constructed by the spherical relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov theory, which largely extends the existing nuclear landscapes predicted with other methods, it is imperative to construct an upgraded mass table with high accuracy by including the deformation and continuum effects simultaneously.
A campaign has been started since Dec. 2018 to construct the first nuclear mass table including continuum and deformation by using the state-of-the-art DRHBc theory with the preeminent density functional PC-PK1. An international collaboration, namely the DRHBc mass table collaboration, was established, which presently includes 31 universities and institutions from countries including China, South Korea, and Japan. A series of “International Workshop on DRHBc Mass Table” have started in 2018 as follows:
o The 1st workshop of the series was held on Dec. 4-8, 2018 in Daejeon and Seoul, hosted by the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and Soongsil University, with about 30 participants.
o The 2nd workshop was held at Peking University on Aug. 22-23, 2019 with about 50 participants. In this workshop, many participants from new institutes joined the project and established research networks for future collaborations.
o The 3rd workshop in hybrid format was held on Aug. 26-28, 2020 in Pusan with about 40 participants hosted by APCTP and Pusan National University to discuss the progress of each group and future plans.
o The 4th workshop also in hybrid format was held on Dec. 16-18, 2021 with two on-site venues, i.e., Peking University, China and Hoseo University, Korea. More than 50 participants attended the workshop.
o The 5th workshop was held on Aug. 28-31, 2022 hosted by APCTP Headquarters, Pohang. About 60 participants attended it on-site or online and discussed the working plan to finish the DRHBc mass table for even-Z nuclei.
o The 6th workshop was held on Dec. 6-9, 2023 hosted by Guizhou Minzu University, Guiyang. About 70 participants attended it and confirmed the tasks and objectives to complete the whole DRHBc mass table.
o The 7th workshop was held on Jul. 1-4, 2024 at Gangneung Green City, South Korea, hosted by Soongsil University. About 50 participants attended to discuss the results and tasks.
To date, the ground-state properties of even-even nuclei with 8 ≤ Z ≤ 120 from the proton drip line to the neutron drip line have been summarized and published in Atomic Data Nuclear Data Tables in 2022. The mass table of all even-Z nuclei with 8 ≤ Z ≤ 120 has been published in Atomic Data Nuclear Data Tables in 2024. Now the campaign is in the last stage, the mass table for all odd-Z nuclei, which is the most challenging and critical. Moreover, the systematic DRHBc calculations for the heaviest nuclei with 120 < Z ≤ 136 have been performed as well. It is, therefore, necessary to organize a workshop to overview the recent progress and try to finalize the construction of the whole DRHBc mass table.
The objectives of “The 8th International Workshop on DRHBc Mass Table” include:
To summarize the recent progress of the DRHBc calculations for the odd-Z nuclei and superheavy nuclear region from PIs.
To finalize the construction of the first relativistic mass table with the continuum, the deformation, the paring correlation, and the blocking effects self-consistently included.
To discuss novel phenomena in nuclear physics by the DRHBc theory and various applications of the DRHBc mass table in nuclear astrophysics.
To fortify and strengthen the scientific collaboration networks in the fields of nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics among the institution members of the DRHBc mass table collaboration.
Topics of the proposed focus program include
o Progress reports from PIs for odd-Z nuclei;
o Descriptions and predictions for superheavy nuclei;
o Construction and physical analysis of the whole DRHBc mass table;
o Applications and interesting topics of DRHBc mass table;
o DRHBc-based nuclear inputs to the astrophysical process.
