Longitudinal form factors of $A\,\leq\,10$ nuclei in a chiral effective field theory approach

TL;DR

This paper presents the first exact many-body calculations of longitudinal electron scattering form factors for nuclei with mass number 7 to 10 using chiral effective field theory, comparing results to data and highlighting promising experimental targets.

Contribution

It introduces the first exact many-body calculations of these form factors in the specified mass range using chiral interactions and a consistent electromagnetic operator.

Findings

Results agree with experimental data where available.

Identifies $^9$Be and $^{10}$B as promising targets for future experiments.

Provides insights into nuclear structure in the $A\, extless=10$ range.

Abstract

In this work, we present the elastic electron scattering longitudinal form factors of $A\le 10$ nuclei computed in a variational Monte Carlo approach. We employ the Norfolk family of local chiral interactions and a consistent electromagnetic charge operator. Our calculations are compared both to data and past theoretical evaluations. This work represents, to our knowledge, the first exact many-body calculation of longitudinal form factors in the $7\,\leq\,A\,\leq\,10$ mass range. Finally, we identify $^9$Be and $^{10}$B as candidate targets for renewed experimental interest, as they exhibit the potential to provide more stringent constraints on the theoretical models.