Pairing and symmetry energy in N ~ Z nuclei

It is shown that in N ~ Z nuclei the effects of isovector pairing and the symmetry energy are intimately related. In particular, in the odd-odd N=Z nuclei these two effect are essentially equal in magnitude, causing near degeneracy of the lowest T = 1 and T = 0 states and appearance of the T = 1 ground state isospin in many such nuclei. Following the earlier work of Janecke, it is shown that the global symmetry energy fit can be reproduced using just the excitation energies of the lowest T= 3/2 states in N= Z+1 nuclei. Similarly, the global pairing gap fit can be related to the excitation energy of the T= N- Zl/2 + 1 states in N~ Z even-A nuclei.