Electroweak probes of ground state densities

Understand

Elastic electron scattering has been used to paint the most accurate picture of the proton distribution in atomic nuclei.

• Spurred by new experimental developments, it is now possible to gain valuable insights into the neutron distribution using exclusively electroweak probes.
• Our goal is to assess the information content and complementarity of the following three electroweak experiments in constraining the neutron distribution of atomic nuclei: (a) parity violating elastic electron scattering, (b) coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering, and (c) elastic electron scattering of unstable nuclei.
• Relativistic mean-field models informed by the properties of finite nuclei and neutron stars are used to compute ground state densities and form factors of a variety of nuclei.