Electromagnetic radii of light nuclei from variational Monte Carlo calculations

Abstract

We present variational Monte Carlo calculations of charge and magnetic radii in $A\le 10$ nuclei. The calculations are based on the Norfolk two- and three-nucleon interactions, and associated one- and two-nucleon electromagnetic charge and current operators derived up to next-to-next-to-next-to leading order in the chiral expansion. The charge and magnetic radii are extracted from the respective form factors. We find that the charge radii are within 5\% of the experimental values for the nuclei considered. For the magnetic radii, a comparison is available only with ${}^3$H and ${}^3$He electron scattering data that are affected by large error bars. We hope that our predictions foster an interest in precisely measuring magnetic radii of heavier systems.

4 pages, 2 figures