Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory for finite nuclei

We present a fully relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory for the description of the ground-state properties of spherical nuclei. The relativistic one-meson exchange interaction in the pp channel is approximated by point couplings, and the NL3 parameter set is used for the effective mean-field Lagrangian. Binding energies, two-neutron separation energies are compared with experimental data and other relativistic calculations performed by using the Gogny force DSA1 in the pp channel. We discuss in detail the relativistic structure of the pairing field in realistic cases. We find that the mixing of large and small components in the Dirac-Hartee-Bogoliubov equations can be neglected to a good approximation.