The NUBASE2016 evaluation of nuclear properties

This paper presents the NUBASE2016 evaluation that contains the recommended values for nuclear and decay properties of 3437 nuclides in their ground and excited isomeric ( T-1/2 >= 100 ns) states. All nuclides for which any experimental information is known were considered. NUBASE2016 covers all data published by October 2016 in primary (journal articles) and secondary (mainly laboratory reports and conference proceedings) references, together with the corresponding bibliographical information. During the development of NUBASE2016, the data available in the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) database were consulted and critically assessed for their validity and completeness. Furthermore, a large amount of new data and some older experimental results that were missing from ENSDF were compiled, evaluated and included in NUBASE2016. The atomic mass values were taken from the Atomic Mass Evaluation (AME2016, second and third parts of the present issue). In cases where no experimental data were available for a particular nuclide, trends in the behavior of specific properties in neighboring nuclides (TNN) were examined. This approach allowed to estimate values for a range of properties that are labeled in NUBASE2016 as non-experimental (flagged #). Evaluation procedures and policies used during the development of this database are presented, together with a detailed table of recommended values and their uncertainties.