Elastic electron scattering form factors of deformed exotic Xe isotopes

Abstract

Background: The positions of diffraction minima of Coulomb form factors $|{F}_{C}{(q)|}^{2}$ are important landmarks for electron scattering experiments, which are sensitive to the nuclear size. For the isotopic chain, previous studies show the minima of $|{F}_{C}{(q)|}^{2}$ have an outward shift as the target nucleus moves to the proton-rich side.Purpose: Based on previous studies, the Coulomb form factors of Xe isotopes are further investigated by the deformed relativistic mean-field (RMF) model and distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) method.Method: First, the nuclear charge density distributions are calculated by the constrained calculations of deformed RMF model. Next, the axially deformed density distributions are expanded into multipole components. With the charge density multipoles, the Coulomb form factors of Xe isotopes are calculated by the DWBA method.Results: For the nucleus with deformation, there are differences on the Coulomb form factors calculated from the spherical and deformed RMF models. For the Xe isotopic chain, the changing trend of $|{F}_{C}{(q)|}^{2}$ from the deformed RMF model is different from the results from the spherical RMF model at high momentum transfers.Conclusions: The minima of $|{F}_{C}{(q)|}^{2}$ of isotopes are directly influenced by the nuclear deformation parameter ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{2}$, not just the charge radius ${R}_{C}$. For the studies of electron scattering, the nuclear deformation should be taken into account, especially in high momentum transfers.