Probing the Neutron Skin of Mirror Nuclei with Coupled-cluster Theory

An accurate determination of the neutron-skin thickness of nuclei can have important implications

in nuclear physics from the structure of neutron-rich nuclei to the equation-of-state of asymmetric

nuclear matter. However, the experimental efforts to measure the neutron skin are inherently

difficult. We calculate the neutron-skin thickness of light to medium-mass nuclei from A = 14 to

A = 64 through mirror nuclei pairs to explore the role of charge symmetry in nuclear interactions.

This data is also used to construct a relation between the neutron and proton radii of mirror pairs.

These calculations utilize different two- and three-nucleon interactions developed from chiral effective

field theory. We then use coupled-cluster (CC) theory to find the correlated ground state from an

axially-symmetric reference state. Our results are supplemented by auxiliary field diffusion Monte

Carlo (AFDMC) calculations and largely agree with experimental ground-state energies and radii

where data exist.