Nuclear diffuseness as a degree of freedom. II. An improved approach

We use our standard self-consistent Thomas-Fermi model of nuclei to calculate the neutron and proton densities, from which we deduce the associated potential wells. We do this for the equilibrium densities as well as for the nonequilibrium densities with larger or smaller diffusenesses. This makes it possible to correlate the changes in the potential-well diffusenesses with the energy cost in going away from the optimum values. These and other properties of the Thomas-Fermi potential wells are tabulated for nuclei with mass numbers A=20 to A=340 along the valley of stability, as well as for neutron-rich or neutron-deficient isotopes. The results are represented by polynominal fits that may be used in macroscopic-microscopic studies of the surface diffuseness degrees of freedom. copyright 1999 The American Physical Society