Relativistic description of deformed rare earth nuclei

Ground state properties of heavy deformed nuclei in the rare earth region are described in the framework of the relativistic Hartree approximation. Both linear and non-linear parameter sets of the lagrangian are used. The non-linear sets reproduce the experimentally observed binding energies, the charge radii and the quadrupole moments, with the same quality as non-relativistic density dependent mean field calculations with Skyrme forces.