From benesch at jlab.org Thu Nov 20 07:12:48 2025 From: benesch at jlab.org (Jay Benesch) Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2025 07:12:48 -0500 Subject: [Prex] Resolving the PREX-CREX puzzle in covariant density functional theory Message-ID: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15385 Resolving the PREX-CREX puzzle in covariant density functional theory Mengying Qiu, Tong-Gang Yue, Zhen Zhang, Lie-Wen Chen The PREX-CREX puzzle, an apparent tension between parity-violating electron-scattering results for ???Pb and ??Ca revealed by modern density functional analyses, has posed a major challenge for nuclear theory. We show that this puzzle can be resolved within covariant density-dependent point-coupling density functional theory by introducing an enhanced isovector tensor coupling. A nonrelativistic reduction identifies the resulting strong isovector spin-orbit interaction as the key mechanism that reconciles the PREX and CREX measurements. Comments: 19 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. Comments are welcome Subjects: Nuclear Theory (nucl-th); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)