Microscopic nuclear level densities for practical applications

New nuclear level densities based on the microscopic statistical model are proposed for practical applications. The statistical calculations are performed using the deformed Hartree-Fock-BCS predictions of the ground-state structure properties. The microscopic model includes a consistent treatment of the shell effects, pairing correlations, deformation effects and collective excitations. It predicts the experimental neutron resonance spacings with a degree of accuracy comparable to that of the phenomenological back-shifted Fermi-gas-type formulae. The microscopic level densities are renormalized to the existing experimental data, namely the s-wave neutron resonance spacings and the cumulative Dumber of low-lying levels. Level densities for more than 8000 nuclei are made available in a table format for practical applications. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.