Electroweak probe of neutron skins of nuclei

We describe a program of elastic electron scattering experiments aimed at direct measurements of the neutral weak form factor of nuclei from which the neutron rms radii of nuclei can be extracted with little theoretical ambiguity. The difference between the neutron and proton rms radii, the neutron skin, is intimately related to the density dependence of the symmetry energy in dense nuclear matter which in turn can be related to neutron star parameters such as mass, radius and mass quadrupole polarizability. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.