Nuclear density

Nuclear density is the density of the nucleons (neutrons and protons) in the nucleus. For heavy nuclei, it is close to the nuclear saturation density ${\displaystyle n_{0}=0.15\pm 0.01}$ nucleons/fm³, which minimizes the energy density of an infinite nuclear matter. The nuclear saturation mass density is thus ${\displaystyle \rho _{0}=n_{0}m_{\rm {u}}\approx 2.5\times 10^{17}}$ kg/m³, where m_u is the atomic mass constant. The descriptive term nuclear density is also applied to situations where similarly high densities occur, such as within neutron stars.