First step in the nuclear inverse Kohn-Sham problem: From densities to potentials

Nuclear density functional theory (DFT) plays a prominent role in the understanding of nuclear structure, being the approach with the widest range of applications. Hohenberg and Kohn theorems warrant the existence of a nuclear energy density functional (EDF), yet its form is unknown. Current efforts to build a nuclear EDF are hindered by the lack of a strategy for systematic improvement. In this context, alternative approaches should be pursued and, so far, an unexplored avenue is that related to the inverse DFT problem. DFT is based on the one-to-one correspondence between Kohn-Sham (KS) potentials and densities. The exact EDF produces the exact density, so that from the knowledge of experimental or ab initio densities one may deduce useful information through reverse engineering. The idea has already been proved to be useful in the case of electronic systems. The general problem should be dealt with in steps, and the objective of the present work is to focus on testing algorithms to extract the Kohn-Sham potential within the simplest ansatz from the knowledge of the experimental neutron and proton densities. We conclude that, while robust algorithms exist, the experimental densities present some critical aspects. Finally, we provide some perspectives for future works.