Neutron skin and halo in medium and heavy nuclei within the extended Thomas - Fermi theory

Abstract

The neutron skin and halo distributions in medium and heavy nuclei are calculated within the extended Thomas - Fermi approximation. Calculations are carried out for the effective Skyrme-like forces using the direct variational method. The analytical expression for the isovector shift of the rms radii Δrnp as a sum of skin- and halo-like terms is obtained. The contribution of halo and skin terms to Δrnp are found to be approximately equal.

Keywords

• neutron skin
• neutron halo
• Thomas - Fermi theory
• variational method
• Skyrme forces