Differences in Ground State Properties of Some Mirror Nuclei

The nuclear structures of three pairs of mirror nuclei, B– Li, N– B, and F– O, were investigated in the framework of a shell model using core nucleus plus valence nucleon calculations. The ground-state characteristics of these pairs were studied, including binding energy, root mean square (rms) radii, proton, neutron, and matter density, and form factors. In addition, the relationship between the proton skin of a nucleus and the difference between the proton radii of mirror-pair nuclei was investigated. Shell model calculations were performed using two model spaces and interactions. The results were compared with the available experimental data. The calculated matter density distributions and rms radii were in good agreement with the experimental data. In general, it was found that the rms radius of the valence proton is larger than that of the valence neutron in its mirror nucleus. For both interactions, a linear relationship between the proton skin and the difference in the proton radii between the mirror pair nuclei was observed. Therefore, one may get the proton skin thickness of the ( ) nucleus by measuring the proton radii of the mirror nuclei.