Improved description of nuclear charge radii: Global trends beyond $N=28$ shell closure

Abstract

Charge radii measured with high accuracy provide a stringent benchmark for characterizing nuclear structure phenomena. In this work, the systematic evolution of charge radii for nuclei with $Z=19$-$29$ is investigated through relativistic mean field theory with effective forces NL3, PK1, and NL3$^{*}$. The neutron-proton ($np$) correlation around Fermi surface originated from the unpaired neutron and proton has been taken into account tentatively in order to reduce the overestimated odd-even staggering of charge radii. This improved method can give an available description of charge radii across $N=28$ shell closure. A remarkable observation is that the charge radii beyond $N=28$ shell closure follow the similarly steep increasing trend, namely irrespective of the number of protons in the nucleus. Especially, the latest results of charge radii for nickel and copper isotopes can be reproduced remarkably well. Along $N=28$ isotonic chain, the sudden increase of charge radii is weakened across $Z=20$, but presented evidently across $Z=28$ closed shell. The abrupt changes of charge radii across $Z=22$ are also shown along $N=32$ and $34$ isotones, but the latter with a less slope. This seems to provide a sensitive indicator to identify the new magicity of a nucleus with universal trend of charge radii.