Wigner-Kirkwood approach for mass calculation: effect of higher order correction terms

Calculation of nuclear masses is still being pursued vigorously by a number of groups around the globe. There are primarily two distinct approaches to calculate masses: a) the microscopic nuclear models based on the density functional theory (like, Skyrme Hartree Fock Bogoliubov or Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) models b) microscopic - macroscopic (Mic - Mac) models. The Mic - Mac models typically yield better than ≅0.7 MeV rms deviation in the masses. A number of Mic - Mac calculations with varying degree of success are available in the literature. The basic idea behind such models is to calculate the bulk part of binding energy using the liquid drop model and the shell effects using the well known Strutinsky smoothing scheme. All these models agree reasonably well with each other and with the experiment, but deviate widely in the regions far away from the valley of stability