Isotope shifts in finite nuclei and the pairing properties of nuclear matter

A uniform nuclear matter with s-wave pairing is studied within the local en ergy-density functional approach, incorporating a few parameter sets extrac ted from the analysis of isotope shifts in finite nuclei. The dilute limit, in which the regime changes from weak to strong pairing, is considered in detail, and, for strong coupling, the ground state properties of that syste m are found to be completely determined in leading order by the singlet sca ttering length a(nn). The combination of a density-dependent contact pairin g interaction and an energy cutoff adjusted to produce a realistic value of a(nn) is shown to be the preferred choice among the deduced parameter sets . (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-3640(99)00216-9].