Strutinsky

Strutinsky is the surname of a Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist known for developing the Strutinsky shell-correction method, a foundational technique in nuclear structure theory. Introduced in 1967, the method is a key component of macroscopic-microscopic models that describe atomic nuclei by combining a smooth macroscopic energy with quantum shell corrections.

The Strutinsky method aims to separate the total energy associated with a nucleus into a smooth reference part and a fluctuating part due to shell effects. It does this by constructing a smooth single-particle level density through folding the discrete energy spectrum with a smoothing function, typically a Gaussian, of width gamma, together with a curvature correction of order p. The resulting smooth energy, E_tilde, is subtracted from the exact sum of occupied single-particle energies to yield the shell-correction energy, delta E_shell. This separation is formalized in what is often called the Strutinsky energy theorem.

Practical implementation requires choosing smoothing parameters, notably the width gamma and the correction order p. Stability criteria, known as the plateau condition, require that delta E_shell be relatively insensitive to reasonable variations of gamma over a plateau region. Although the method is widely successful, the results can depend on the chosen parameters, reflecting its approximate, non-unique nature.

Applications of the Strutinsky approach include calculating nuclear binding energies, deformation properties, and fission barriers within the macroscopic-microscopic framework. The method has also influenced studies of metal clusters and other quantum systems with discrete energy levels. It remains a standard tool in theoretical nuclear physics and related fields, often discussed alongside related concepts such as the Strutinsky smoothing procedure and the macroscopic-microscopic approach.