Self-consistent study of the neutron skin compared with the droplet model theory

Abstract

The self-consistent version of the energy density formalism is used to study the variations of the neutron skin thickness near and far from the stability line. The shell effects in the differences between RMS radii and neutron and proton density distributions are found to be weak. Approximate droplet model sharp radii are also defined for the self-consistent densities, in order to compare the results with the droplet model predictions. Important differences with this model are found. In particular, the values obtained far from the stability line for the neutron skin thickness seem to be incompatible with the droplet model.