Nuclear symmetry energy probed by neutron skin thickness of nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates how measurements of neutron skin thickness in nuclei can constrain the nuclear symmetry energy, linking properties of finite nuclei to nuclear matter behavior, and compares these constraints with other experimental methods.

Contribution

It establishes a relation between symmetry energy coefficients of nuclear matter and finite nuclei, enabling new constraints from neutron skin measurements.

Findings

Neutron skin data provide constraints consistent with other methods.

The relation helps connect nuclear matter properties to finite nuclei observations.

Current measurements support existing symmetry energy models.

Abstract

We describe a relation between the symmetry energy coefficients c_sym(rho) of nuclear matter and a_sym(A) of finite nuclei that accommodates other correlations of nuclear properties with the low-density behavior of c_sym(rho). Here we take advantage of this relation to explore the prospects for constraining c_sym(rho) of systematic measurements of neutron skin sizes across the mass table, using as example present data from antiprotonic atoms. The found constraints from neutron skins are in harmony with the recent determinations from reactions and giant resonances.