Odd-even staggering of binding energies as a consequence of pairing and mean-field effects

Odd-even staggering of binding energies is studied in finite fermion systems with pairing correlations. We discuss contributions of the pairing and mean-field to the staggering, and we construct the binding-energy filters which measure the magnitude of pairing correlations and the effective single-particle spacings in a given system The analysis is based on studying several exactly-solvable many-body Hamiltonians as well as on the analytical formulas that can be applied in the weak and strong pairing limits.