Nuclear Sizes and the Isotope Shift

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Abstract
Darwin-Foldy nuclear-size corrections in electronic atoms and nuclear radii are discussed from the nuclear-physics perspective. Interpretation of precise isotope-shift measurements is formalism dependent, and care must be exercised in interpreting these results and those obtained from relativistic electron scattering from nuclei. We strongly advocate that the entire nuclear-charge operator be used in calculating nuclear-size corrections in atoms, rather than relegating portions of it to the non-radiative recoil corrections. A preliminary examination of the intrinsic deuteron radius obtained from isotope-shift measurements suggests the presence of small meson-exchange currents (exotic binding contributions of relativistic order) in the nuclear charge operator, which contribute approximately 1/2%.