Coulomb energy differences in mirror nuclei revisited - art. no. 024305

We calculate the Coulomb displacement energies (CDEs) of mirror nuclei usin g the recent parameter set (NL3) in the relativistic mean-field (RMF) model which includes self-coupling of the scalar meson. The results obtained are compared with the available ones calculated in the nonrelativistic Skyrme- Hartree-Fock (SHF) approach that have the best fit to the experimental data . When adjusted to reproduce the charge root-mean-square (rms) radius r(c) and the rms radii of the valence orbits, the results of the RMF model for t he CDEs agree with those of the SHF model within similar to 1 %. Our invest igation also shows that, although the RMF with the NL3 parameter set reprod uces the kink in the isotope variation of r(c), the values obtained for CDE s are too small to account for the experimental values without the addition of the contribution due to long-range correlation effects.