Matthias Heinz (ORNL): Ab initio analysis of parity-violating electron scattering

Monday Sep 21, 2026, 1:50 PM → 2:40 PM US/Eastern

604 (Nielsen)

Parity-violating scattering experiments, like CREX and PREX at JLab, aim to measure the weak radius of nuclei. This allows them to, in principle, infer the neutron skins of asymmetric nuclei like calcium-48 and lead-208, which gives insights into nuclear forces in neutron rich environments and constrains the properties of matter in neutron stars. I present recent work on an ab initio analysis of parity-violating electron scattering, connecting for the first time the measured parity-violating asymmetry with our understanding of fundamental strong interactions. Through this analysis, we find that the PREX analysis is very sensitive to model choices made to infer the neutron skin from the parity-violating asymmetry, and the resulting uncertainty on the neutron skin is underestimated, not reflecting this nuclear theory model dependence. Our work motivates a reconsideration of how to determine the neutron skin from parity-violating electron scattering in a model-independent way, which will be critical for the upcoming MREX experiment.