Abstract
The ground-state energy of an atomic nucleus with asymmetry beta is considered to be equivalent to the energy of a perfect sphere made up of infinite nuclear matter of the same asymmetry plus a residual energy eta , called the local energy. eta represents the energy due to shell, deformation, diffuseness and exchange Coulomb effects, etc. Using this picture and the generalised Hugenholtz-Van Hove theorem of many-body theory, the previously proposed mass relation is derived in a transparent way in which eta drops away in a very natural manner. The validity of this mass relation is studied globally using the latest mass table. The model is suitable for the extraction of the saturation properties of nuclear matter. The binding energy per nucleon and the saturation Fermi momentum of nuclear matter obtained through this model are 18.33 MeV and 1.48 fm-1 respectively, which agree with the recent many-body calculations of Day (1983). A recurrence relation for eta is derived and is found to have an excellent extrapolation property. Using this property and the energy of the sphere of infinite nuclear matter, it is shown in several representative cases in the periodic table that the masses of nuclei in the far unknown region can be reliably predicted.