Variation of nuclear radii in the drip line regions

The authors are concerned with predictions of the energy density method with respect to the nuclear sizes (RMS radii). It is known that the commonly accepted A/sup 1/3/-type laws are only approximative and deviations are expected to grow significantly as one goes away from the beta -stability region. Particular attention is paid to the variation of nuclear radii in the drip line regions. Implications of the resulting large total Coulomb energy variations between neighbouring nuclei will be emphasized.