DOI: 10.1140/epjad/i2005-06-091-3 Eur. Phys. J. A 25, s01, 555–556 (2005) EPJ A direct electronic only Relativistic mean-field models with medium-dependent meson-nucleon couplings D. Vretenar 1,3, a , G.A. Lalazissis 2,3 , T. Nikˇ si´ c 1,3 , and P. Ring 3 1 Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia 2 Department of Theoretical Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124, Thessaloniki, Greece 3 Physik-Department der Technischen Universit¨ at M¨ unchen, D-85748 Garching, Germany Received: 10 November 2004 / Published online: 13 May 2005 – c  Societ` a Italiana di Fisica / Springer-Verlag 2005 Abstract. Microscopic structure models based on the relativistic mean-field approximation have been ex- tended to include effective Lagrangians with explicit density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings. In a number of recent studies it has been shown that this class of global effective interactions provides an improved description of asymmetric nuclear matter, neutron matter and finite nuclei far from stability. PACS. 21.30.Fe Forces in hadronic systems and effective interactions – 21.60.-n Nuclear-structure models and methods – 21.60.Jz Hartree-Fock and random-phase approximations The self-consistent mean-field framework enables a de- scription of the nuclear many-body problem in terms of universal energy density functionals. By employing global effective interactions, adjusted to empirical properties of symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter, and to bulk properties of few spherical nuclei, self-consistent mean- field models have achieved a high level of accuracy in the description of ground states and properties of excited states in arbitrarily heavy nuclei. A universal energy den- sity functional theory should provide a basis for a con- sistent microscopic treatment of infinite nuclear and neu- tron matter, ground-state properties of all bound nuclei, low-energy excited states, small-amplitude vibrations, and reliable extrapolations toward the drip lines. An important class of self-consistent mean-field models belongs to the framework of relativistic mean-field theory (RMF). The RMF framework has recently been extended to include effective Lagrangians with density-dependent meson-nucleon vertex functions. The functional form of the meson-nucleon vertices can be deduced either by map- ping the nuclear matter Dirac-Brueckner nucleon self en- ergies in the local density approximation, or a phenomeno- logical approach can be adopted, with the density depen- dence for the σ-, ω- and ρ-meson–nucleon couplings ad- justed to properties of nuclear matter and a set of spher- ical nuclei. We have recently adjusted two new phenomenological density-dependent interactions to be used in RMF + BCS, relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB), and quasiparticle random phase approximation (RQRPA) calculations of ground states and excitations of spherical and deformed a Conference presenter; e-mail: vretenar@phy.hr nuclei. The eight independent parameters: seven coupling parameters and the mass of the σ-meson, have been ad- justed to reproduce the properties of symmetric and asym- metric nuclear matter, binding energies, charge radii and neutron radii of spherical nuclei. In ref. [1] we introduced the density-dependent meson-exchange effective interac- tion (DD-ME1). It has been shown that, as compared to standard non-linear relativistic mean-field effective forces, the interaction DD-ME1 has better isovector properties and therefore provides an improved description of asym- metric nuclear matter, neutron matter and nuclei far from stability. The DD-ME1 interaction has recently been also tested in the calculation of deformed nuclei [2]. In refs. [3, 4] we employed the RQRPA in a series of calculations of giant resonances in spherical nuclei. Start- ing from DD-ME1, and by constructing families of in- teractions with some given characteristic (compressibil- ity, symmetry energy, effective mass), it has been shown how the comparison of the RQRPA results on multipole giant resonances with experimental data can be used to constrain the parameters that characterize the isoscalar and isovector channel of the density-dependent effective interactions. In particular, in ref. [4] we have shown that the comparison of the calculated excitation energies with the experimental data on the giant monopole resonances (GMR) restricts the nuclear matter compression modu- lus to K nm ≈ 250–270 MeV. The isovector giant dipole resonance (IVGDR) in 208 Pb, and the available data on differences between neutron and proton radii, limit the range of the nuclear matter symmetry energy at satura- tion (volume asymmetry) of these effective interactions to 32 MeV ≤ a 4 ≤ 36 MeV. The interaction DD-ME1 has