Neutron density distributions of ^204,206,208Pb deduced via proton elastic scattering at E_p = 295 MeV

Cross sections and analyzing powers for polarized proton elastic scattering from ⁵⁸Ni, and ^204,206,208Pb were measured at intermediate energy E_p = 295 MeV. An effective relativistic Love-Franey interaction is tuned to reproduce ⁵⁸Ni scattering data within the framework of the relativistic impulse approximation. The neutron densities of the lead isotopes are deduced using model-independent sum-of-Gaussians distributions. Their error envelopes are estimated by a new χ² criterion including uncertainties associated with the reaction model. The systematic behaviors of extracted error envelopes of the neutron density distributions in ^204,206,208Pb are presented. The extracted neutron and proton density distribution of ²⁰⁸Pb gives a neutron skin thickness of Δr_np = 0.211^+0.054 _-0.063 fm.