Nuclear charge radii of Na isotopes: A tale of two theories

TL;DR

This paper improves the extraction of nuclear charge radii of Na isotopes by combining precise atomic calculations with nuclear models, addressing discrepancies from previous methods and guiding future atomic and nuclear theory.

Contribution

It introduces accurate atomic calculations combined with nuclear coupled-cluster models to reliably determine Na isotope charge radii, bridging experimental data and theoretical models.

Findings

Atomic calculations constrain charge radii extraction.

Combined atomic and nuclear models improve accuracy.

Highlights importance of precise atomic and nuclear computations.

Abstract

The accuracy of atomic theory calculations limits the extraction of nuclear charge radii from isotope shift measurements of odd-proton nuclei. For Na isotopes, though precise spectroscopic measurements have existed since more than half a century, calculations by different methods offer a wide range of values. Here, we present accurate atomic calculations to reliably extract the Na charge radii. By combining experimental matter radii with nuclear coupled-cluster calculations based on nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon forces, we constrain the parameters obtained from the atomic calculations. Therefore, this study guides atomic theory and highlights the importance of using accurate atomic and nuclear computations in our understanding of the size of light nuclei.