Discerning the neutron density distribution of ²⁰⁸Pb from nucleon elastic scattering

In this paper we seek a measure of the neutron density of ²⁰⁸Pb from analyses of intermediate-energy nucleon elastic scattering. The pertinent model for such analyses is based on coordinate space nonlocal optical potentials obtained from model nuclear ground-state densities. Those potentials give predictions of integral observables and of angular distributions, which show sensitivity to the neutron density. When compared with experiment, and correlated with analyses of electron scattering data, the results suggest that ²⁰⁸Pb has a neutron skin thickness of ∼0.17 fm.