Article
Accurate Determination of the Neutron Skin Thickness of 208 Pb through Parity-Violation in Electron Scattering
Physical Review Letters
(2021)
Abstract
We report a precision measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry APV in the elastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons from 208Pb. We measure APV=550±16(stat)±8(syst) parts per billion, leading to an extraction of the neutral weak form factor FW(Q2=0.00616GeV2)=0.368±0.013. Combined with our previous measurement, the extracted neutron skin thickness is Rn−Rp=0.283±0.071fm. The result also yields the first significant direct measurement of the interior weak density of 208Pb: ρ0W=−0.0796±0.0036(exp)±0.0013(theo)fm−3 leading to the interior baryon density ρ0b=0.1480±0.0036(exp)±0.0013(theo)fm−3. The measurement accurately constrains the density dependence of the symmetry energy of nuclear matter near saturation density, with implications for the size and composition of neutron stars.
Disciplines
Publication Date
April, 2021
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.172502
Citation Information
D. Adhikari, Todd Averett and PREX Collaboration. "Accurate Determination of the Neutron Skin Thickness of 208 Pb through Parity-Violation in Electron Scattering" Physical Review Letters Vol. 126 (2021) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/todd-averett/11/