Improved Skyrme forces for Hartree-Fock seniority calculations

Abstract The relationship between Skyrme parameters and physical quantities in nuclear matter is discussed in detail and bounds for some parameters are derived. Improved density-dependent two-body Skyrme forces are obtained by a least-squares fit of all the parameters simultaneously to a large set of data, including nuclear matter, mass formula and Landau parameters, and data of finite nuclei. Special attention is paid to the pairing properties of the interaction. These forces are used to perform self-consistent calculations in spherical closed-shell nuclei and Ca open-shell isotopes, within the Hartree-Fock seniority method. Good agreement with experimental data is obtained.