Masses and radii of spherical nuclei calculated in various microscopic approaches

The quality of the description of nuclear masses and charge radii, calculat ed in various microscopic approaches, is studied. The Hartree-Fock-Bogoliub ov (HFB), extended Thomas-Fermi model with Strutinski integral (ETFSI), rel ativistic mean field (RMF), and macroscopic-microscopic (MM) approaches are considered. In the HFB approximation, both finite-range (Gogny) and zero-r ange (Skyrme) effective forces are used. Spherical even-even nuclei (116 nu clides), from light (A=16) to heavy (A=220) ones, with known experimental m ass are chosen for the study. A general result is that the best description of masses of considered nuclei is obtained in the MM and ETFSI approaches, while the best charge radii are obtained within the RMF and ETFSI approxim ations. The behavior of nuclear masses and radii, when one moves far off th e beta-stability line, is also studied. [S0556-2813(99)00102-8].