Non-Uniform Particle Density in Nuclear Structure

Abstract

The Coulomb repulsion between protons must give rise to a tendency for the proton density to vary within a nucleus from a minimum value at the center to a maximum near the boundary. A non-uniform proton density may be expected to create forces which distort the neutron distribution and tend to make the two distributions vary in the same manner. If surface effects are neglected, it is possible to calculate the energy correction associated with the non-uniform densities without making special assumptions about the nuclear forces. The neglect of surface effects permits the assumption that the variations in density are small departures from essentially constant distributions. It is found that the departure from uniform density is appreciable in heavy nuclei, but the energy correction is negligible.