Measurement of the Neutron Radius of 208Pb Through Parity-Violation in Electron Scattering
nucl-ex
/ Authors
S. Abrahamyan, Z. Ahmed, H. Albataineh, K. Aniol, D. S. Armstrong, W. Armstrong, T. Averett, B. Babineau, A. Barbieri, V. Bellini
and 125 more authors
R. Beminiwattha, J. Benesch, F. Benmokhtar, T. Bielarski, W. Boeglin, A. Camsonne, M. Canan, P. Carter, G. D. Cates, C. Chen, J. -P. Chen, O. Hen, F. Cusanno, M. M. Dalton, R. De Leo, K. de Jager, W. Deconinck, P. Decowski, X. Deng, A. Deur, D. Dutta, A. Etile, D. Flay, G. B. Franklin
/ Abstract
We report the first measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry A_PV in the elastic scattering of polarized electrons from 208Pb. A_PV is sensitive to the radius of the neutron distribution (Rn). The result A_PV = 0.656 \pm 0.060 (stat) \pm 0.014 (syst) ppm corresponds to a difference between the radii of the neutron and proton distributions Rn - Rp = 0.33 +0.16 -0.18 fm and provides the first electroweak observation of the neutron skin which is expected in a heavy, neutron-rich nucleus.