New precision measurement of the neutron skin thickness of Lead-208

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The PREX/PREX-II collaboration is reporting new measurements of the parity-violating asymmetry in elastic electron scattering from the Lead-208 nucleus. This asymmetry, which is generated by the interference between the electromagnetic and weak neutral current interactions between the electron and the nucleus, is highly sensitive to the difference in size between the proton and neutron distributions in the Lead-208 nucleus.

The new measurement improves on the statistical precision of the PREX-I measurement by more than a factor of 3, and has significant implications for the size and composition of neutron stars.

  • Preprint of the manuscript reporting the PREX-II result, prepared for submission to Physical Review Letters
  • The PREX-I result, published in Physical Review Letters in 2012