The investigation deals with the relationship between different root-mean-square (rms) radii of light atomic nuclei. The formalism developed operates with translationally invariant operators and intrinsic (antisymmetric in respect to all nucleons and translationally invariant) wave functions. It is shown that at the given matter (pointlike nucleon) rms radius $R_m$ there exist well-defined model-independent lower and upper bounds for pointlike neutron ${(R}_n)$ and point-like proton ${(R}_p)$ rms radii. The neutron skin, defined as the difference of the maximal value of $R_n$ and the minimal value of $R_p$ for many light nuclei with neutron excess, is close to the corresponding model-dependent value, derived analyzing experiments with high-energy radioactive nuclear beams [I. Tanihata, T. Kobayashi, O. Yamakava, S. Shimoura, K. Ekuni, K. Sugimoto, N. Takahashi, T. Shimoda, and H. Sato, Phys. Lett. B 206, 592 (1988)]. It is shown, that in some cases ${(}^{14}$Be, ${}^{14}$B, ${}^{15}$B) it can be larger than those predicted in the work mentioned above.

• Received 16 May 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.56.191