The newly derived relativistic energy density functional [Phys. Rev. C 103, 024305 (2021)], which stems from the effective field theory motivated relativistic mean field (E-RMF), is employed to establish the appearance of peaks and/or kinks in the symmetry energy over the isotopic chain of Pb nuclei. The coherent density fluctuation model parametrization procedure for finite nuclei is adopted here to obtain the relativistic energy density functional at local density. The relativistic energy density functional from relativistic mean-field theory takes precedence over the Brückner energy density functional as it accurately predicts the empirical saturation density and binding energy per nucleon $E/A$, so-called coester band problem. Interestingly, using the relativistic energy density functional, it is possible to predict the peak at $N=126$ for recently developed G3 and widely used NL3 parameter sets, which is not observed for Brückener's functional in spite of using the relativistic mean-field density. From the present analysis, the newly fitted energy density functional is found to be minutely sensitive to the choice of the parameter sets employed.

• Received 6 October 2021
• Revised 14 November 2021
• Accepted 11 January 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.105.014318