  The recent high-resolution measurement of the electric dipole (E1)
polarizability (alphad) in 208Pb [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 062502 (2011)] provides
a unique constraint on the neutron-skin thickness of this nucleus. The
neutron-skin thickness (rskin) of 208Pb is a quantity of critical importance
for our understanding of a variety of nuclear and astrophysical phenomena. To
assess the model dependence of the correlation between alphad and rskin, we
carry out systematic calculations for 208Pb, 132Sn, and 48Ca based on the
nuclear density functional theory (DFT) using both non-relativistic and
relativistic energy density functionals (EDFs). Our analysis indicates that
whereas individual models exhibit a linear dependence between alphad and rskin,
this correlation is not universal when one combines predictions from a host of
different models. By averaging over these model predictions, we provide
estimates with associated systematic errors for rskin and alphad for the nuclei
under consideration. We conclude that precise measurements of rskin in both
48Ca and 208Pb---combined with the recent measurement of alphad---should
significantly constrain the isovector sector of the nuclear energy density
functional.
