2020/07/31 by C. J. Horowitz, J. Piekarewicz, Brendan T. Reed +1
Chemistry · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced NMR Techniques and Applications #Atomic physics #Charge radius #Effective nuclear charge #Electron #Electron scattering #Extrapolation #Mathematics #Nuclear matter #Nuclear physics #Nuclear physics research studies #Nucleon #Parity (physics) #Particle physics #Physics #Proton #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum mechanics #Saturation (graph theory) #Scattering #Statistics #nucl-ex #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.102.044321
published as Phys. Rev. C 102, 044321 (2020) · 6 pages, 3 figures, minor changes, Phys. Rev. C in press
arxiv created 2020/09/29 · openalex created_date 2020/10/08 · openalex publication_date 2020/10/19 · arxiv updated 2020/10/21 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The saturation density of nuclear matter \ensuremathρ0 is a fundamental nuclear physics property that is difficult to predict from fundamental principles. The saturation density is closely related to the interior density of a heavy nucleus, such as 208Pb. Parity-violating electron scattering can determine the average interior weak charge and baryon densities in 208Pb. This requires not only measuring the weak radius Rwk but also determining the surface thickness of the weak charge density a. We use the PREX experimental result for the weak radius of Pb and assume a 10% theoretical uncertainty in the presently unmeasured surface thickness to obtain \ensuremathρ0=0.150\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.010\phantom\rule4pt0exfm^\ensuremath-3. Here the 7% error also has contributions from the extrapolation to infinite nuclear matter. These errors can be improved with the upcoming PREX II results and with a new parity-violating electron scattering experiment, at a somewhat higher momentum transfer, to determine a.