Relativistic single-particle states and coulomb energies

Abstract The Dirac equation with scalar and time-like vector potentials is used to give single-particle bound states. It is shown that energy-independent potentials give a satisfactory account of the experimental binding energies. The charge and neutron distributions are as good as those obtained from non-relativistic calculations with density-dependent forces. The Nolen-Schiffer anomaly is considered in the framework of the relativistic approach and is shown to be less (half) than in simple non-relativistic treatments and comparable to that obtained with density-dependent forces.