K. Amos
School of Physics, University of Melbourne,
Victoria 3010, Australia
S. Karataglidis
Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545
J. Dobaczewski
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw University,
PL-00-681, Warsaw, Poland
May 6, 2002
Proton and neutron densities have been obtained for the even-even isotopes of Sn from 100Sn to 176Sn using a Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov model with a Skyrme interaction. The matter densities so defined have been used with realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions in a folding model to specify optical potentials for the elastic scattering of 65 and 200 MeV protons from which predictions of the differential cross sections and spin observables result. As mass increases, one observes the emergence of the neutron skin in the Sn isotopes whose effect on the differential cross section is marked. Comparisons with available data show how scattering data for the neutron-rich isotopes is likely to provide constraints for the model structures.