The code HFBTHO (v1.66p) is a tool of choice for self-consistent calculations for a large number of even-even nuclei. Several examples of deformed HFBTHO calculations, recently implemented on parallel computers, are given in Ref. [23]. By creating a simple load-balancing routine that allows one to scale the problem to 200 processors, it was possible to calculate the entire deformed even-even nuclear mass table in a single 24 wall-clock hour run (or approximately 4,800 processor hours).
The crucial input for such calculations, which determines the quality of results, is the nuclear energy density functional. The development of the ``universal" nuclear energy density functional still remains one of the major challenges for nuclear theory. While self-consistent HFB methods have already achieved a level of sophistication and precision which allows analyses of experimental data for a wide range of properties and for arbitrarily heavy nuclei (see, e.g., Refs. [41,42,43] for deformed HFB mass table), much work remains to be done. Developing a universal nuclear density functional will require a better understanding of the density dependence, isospin effects, and pairing, as well as an improved treatment of symmetry-breaking effects and many-body correlations.
In addition to systematic improvements of the nuclear energy density functional, there are several anticipated extensions of HFBTHO itself. The future enhancements to HFBTHO will include the implementation of the full particle-number projection before variation, extension of code to odd particle numbers, implementation of non-standard spin-orbit term and two-body center-of-mass correction, and evaluation of dynamical corrections representing correlations beyond the mean field.
This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract Nos. DE-FG02-96ER40963 (University of Tennessee), DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), and DE-FG05-87ER40361 (Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research); by the National Nuclear Security Administration under the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances program through DOE Research Grant DE-FG03-03NA00083; by the Polish Committee for Scientific Research (KBN); and by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP).