A systematic study of correlations in the chart of nuclear masses calculated using the finite range droplet model of Möller et al. is presented. It is shown that the differences between the calculated and measured masses have a well defined oscillatory component as function of the proton and neutron numbers, which can be removed with an appropriate fit, concentrating the error distribution on a single peak around zero. The presence of this regular residual correlations suggests that the Strutinsky method of including microscopic fluctuations in nuclear masses could be improved.

• Received 3 June 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.69.037304