Deformation effect on nuclear density profile and radius enhancement in light- and medium-mass neutron-rich nuclei

TL;DR

This study investigates how nuclear deformation affects the density profiles and radius enhancement in neutron-rich light- and medium-mass nuclei using Skyrme-Hartree-Fock calculations, revealing a correlation between deformation and density changes.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of deformation effects on nuclear density and radii, extending the core swelling mechanism to deformed nuclei using non-empirical calculations.

Findings

Nuclear deformation correlates with internal density changes.

Nuclear radii are further enhanced by deformation beyond core swelling.

Deformation influences the nuclear density profile significantly.

Abstract

Mass number dependence of the nuclear radii is closely related to the nuclear matter properties. It is known that the most of nuclei exhibit some deformation. We discuss how the nuclear density profile is modified by the nuclear deformation to elucidate the enhancement mechanism of the nuclear radii through a systematic investigation of neutron-rich Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, Ti, Cr, and Fe isotopes. Skyrme-Hartree-Fock calculations are performed in a three-dimensional Cartesian grid to describe the nuclear deformation in a non-empirical way. The role of the nuclear deformation on the nuclear density profiles is explored in comparison to calculations with spherical limit. We find correlations between the nuclear deformation and the internal nuclear density. The evolution of the nuclear radii appears to follow the core swelling mechanism recently proposed in spherical nuclei [Phys. Rev. C 101, 061301(R) (2020)], and the radius is further enhanced by the nuclear deformation. This study demands further theoretical and experimental investigations for the internal density.