In this section, we present the results of several sets of HFB calculations performed in the axial-deformed THO basis. All the calculations were carried out using the Skyrme interaction SLy4 [29], which has recently been adjusted to the properties of stable nuclei, neutron-rich nuclei and neutron matter. This force has a proven record in deformed-mean-field calculations [30,31,32,8,33,34,35,36], including calculations of rotational properties in nuclei [37,38,39,40,41]. At the same time, it reproduces the masses of spherical nuclei with an accuracy similar to several other Skyrme forces.
Below we review our choice of the various parameters that define our calculations and present several tests of the THO approach. Then we present results obtained for the Mg isotopes and for light nuclei at the two-neutron drip line. A more extensive set of calculations will be presented in a future study, where we shall also explore in detail the influence of the type of pairing force on the properties of drip-line nuclei.