What is the size of the atomic nucleus?

What is the size of the atomic nucleus? This deceivably simple question is difficult to answer. Although the electric charge distributions in atomic nuclei were measured accurately already half a century ago, our knowledge of the distribution of neutrons is still deficient. In addition to constraining the size of atomic nuclei, the neutron distribution also impacts the number of stable nuclei and the size of neutron stars. 

In this talk I will review the current experimental situation, and discuss our ab-initio theoretical approach for calculating the properties of light and medium mass nuclei (nuclei with up to about 50 nucleons). 

Using these ab-initio methods, we predict that the neutron skin (difference between the radii of the neutron and proton distributions) is significantly smaller than previously thought. We also make predictions for the electric dipole polarizability and the weak form factor; both quantities that are at present targeted by precision measurements. 

Hagen et al., Nature Physics 12, 186–190 (2016).

Questions: https://youtu.be/L-AAO4cjuDg