New parametrization for the nuclear covariant energy density functional with point-coupling interaction P. W. Zhao, 1 Z. P. Li, 1 J. M. Yao, 2 and J. Meng ∗ 1, 3, 4 $^{1}$State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China $^{2}$School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China $^{3}$School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China $^{4}$Department of Physics, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Dated: November 18, 2018) A new parametrization PC-PK1 for the nuclear covariant energy density functional with nonlin- ear point-coupling interaction is proposed by fitting to observables of 60 selected spherical nuclei, including the binding energies, charge radii and empirical pairing gaps. The success of PC-PK1 is illustrated in the description for infinite nuclear matter and finite nuclei including the ground-state and low-lying excited states. Particularly, PC-PK1 provides good description for isospin depen- dence of binding energy along either the isotopic or the isotonic chains, which makes it reliable for application in exotic nuclei. The predictive power of PC-PK1 is also illustrated for the nuclear low-lying excitation states in a five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian in which the parameters are determined by constrained calculations for triaxial shapes. PACS numbers: 21.60.Jz, 21.30.Fe, 21.10.Dr, 21.10.Ft ∗ Email: mengj@pku.edu.cn 1 arXiv:1002.1789v2 [nucl-th] 11 Nov 2010 Abstract