PROTON AND NEUTRON DENSITY DISTRIBUTIONS FOR A = 16-58 NUCLEI

A new method of calculating nuclear charge and matter distributions is described. It uses the sum of the squares of single-particle wavefunctions to give a first approximation and then iterates the proton and neutron densities in a formalism that takes into account the interaction between these densities and between the valence and core nucleons. The single-particle potentials are adjusted to give the experimental centroid separation energies and configuration mixing is included using shell-model occupation probabilities. The method is applied to the core nuclei 16O and 40Ca, to their isotopes and to other nuclei in the sd and pf shells. Detailed comparisons are made with all available experimental data on nuclear charge and matter distributions.