Shape coexistence in the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov approach

The phenomenon of shape coexistence is studied in the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov framework. Standard relativistic mean-field effective interactions do not reproduce the ground-state properties of neutron-deficient Pt-Hg-Pb isotopes. It is shown that, in order to consistently describe binding energies, radii, and ground-state deformations of these nuclei, effective interactions have to be constructed, which take into account the sizes of spherical shell gaps.