We find a new method to deduce nuclear radii from proton-nucleus elastic scattering data. In this method, a nucleus is viewed as a “black” sphere. A diffraction pattern of protons by this sphere is equivalent to that of the Fraunhofer diffraction by a circular hole of the same radius embedded in a screen. We determine the black sphere radius in such a way as to reproduce the empirical value of the angle of the observed first diffraction peak. It is useful to identify this radius multiplied by $\sqrt{3∕5}$ with the root-mean-square matter radius of the target nucleus. For most stable isotopes of masses heavier than 50, it agrees, within the error bars, with the values that were deduced in previous elaborate analyses from the data obtained at proton incident energies higher than $\sim 800\mathrm{MeV}$.

• Received 22 January 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.69.064316