Core swelling in spherical nuclei: An indication of the saturation of nuclear density

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phenomenon of core swelling in spherical nuclei, especially in neutron-rich isotopes, using microscopic calculations to understand how nuclear density saturation influences nuclear radii and structure.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic analysis of core swelling mechanisms in neutron-rich nuclei, linking valence neutron states to density saturation effects.

Findings

Good agreement with experimental cross sections and charge radii

Core swelling depends on valence neutron states

Density saturation influences nuclear size in light nuclei

Abstract

Background: Nuclear radius is one of the most important and basic properties of atomic nuclei and its evolution is closely related to the saturation of the nuclear density in the internal region but the systematics of the nuclear radii for the neutron-rich unstable nuclei is not well known. Purpose: Motivated by the recent interaction cross section measurement which indicates the 48Ca core swelling in the neutron-rich Ca isotopes, we explore the mechanism of the enhancement of the neutron and proton radii for spherical nuclei. Methods: Microscopic Hartree-Fock calculations with three sets of Skyrme-type effective interactions are performed for the neutron-rich Ca, Ni and Sn isotopes. The total reaction cross sections for the Ca isotopes are evaluated with the Glauber model to compare them with the recent cross section data. Results: We obtain good agreement with the measured cross sections and charge radii. The neutron and proton radii of the various "core" configurations are extracted from the full Hartree-Fock calculation and discuss the core swelling mechanism. Conclusions: The core swelling phenomena occur depending on the properties of the occupying valence single-neutron states to minimize the energy loss that comes from the saturation of the densities in the internal region, which appears to be prominent in light nuclei such as Ca isotopes.