Markov Chain Monte Carlo and the Dispersive Optical Model

Optical Models (OMs) have been used for several decades to analyze experimental elastic and inelastic nuclear scattering cross sections. Recent developments of the Dispersive Optical Model (DOM) allow for simultaneous fitting of both scattering and structural nuclear data (binding energies, RMS radii, charge density distributions) to constrain the model, enabling rigorous predictions for the proton and neutron matter and momentum distributions within various nuclei. In this seminar, I will present an introduction to Markov-Chain Monte Carlo analysis as applied to the DOM and show a new, surprising result from our analysis: that the most-deeply-bound ten percent of nucleons possess roughly half the nuclear binding energy.