Nuclidic mass relationships and mass equations

Mass equations M(N,Z) are generally obtained by establishing the analytical form of the equation on the basis of nuclear structure considerations and by subsequently minimizing the differences M(N,Z) — Mexp(N,Z) for all known masses by adjusting parameters. An alternate approach is described in this contribution. It makes use of nuclidic mass relationships which represent partial difference equations. Some aspects of this approach have been reported earlier[1,2].