Nuclear diffuseness as a degree of freedom. II. An improved approach - art. no. 054313

We use our standard self-consistent Thomas-Fermi model of nuclei to calcula te the neutron and proton densities, from which we deduce the associated po tential wells. We do this for the equilibrium densities as well as for the nonequilibrium densities with larger or smaller diffusenesses. This makes i t possible to correlate the changes in the potential-well diffusenesses wit h the energy cost in going away from the optimum values. These and other pr operties 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 fo r neutron-rich or neutron-deficient isotopes. The results are represented b y polynominal fits that may be used in macroscopic-microscopic studies of t he surface diffuseness degrees of freedom. [S0556-2813(99)06010-0].