Triaxial nuclei calculated with the extended Thomas-Fermi plus Strutinsky integral (ETFSI) method - art. no. 054303

We have generalized the extended Thomas-Fermi plus Strutinsky integral (ETF SI) method to include a possible triaxiality of the nuclear shape, and inve stigated the effect on both ground states and fission barriers. In all the 36 cases that we have studied the effect of the triaxiality on the ground-s tate binding energy never exceeds 0.7 MeV, which is smaller than the rms er ror of the ETFSI-1 mass fit. As for the 15 fission barriers that we have st udied, the average lowering arising from triaxiality is 0.6 MeV, while the maximal effect is 1.3 MeV, which is smaller than the maximal disagreement b etween the ETFSI-1 barriers and experiment.