  Electron scattering on unstable nuclei is planned in future facilities of the
GSI and RIKEN upgrades. Motivated by this fact, we study theoretical
predictions for elastic electron scattering in the N=82, N=50, and N=14
isotonic chains from very proton-deficient to very proton-rich isotones. We
compute the scattering observables by performing Dirac partial-wave
calculations. The charge density of the nucleus is obtained with a covariant
nuclear mean-field model that accounts for the low-energy electromagnetic
structure of the nucleon. For the discussion of the dependence of scattering
observables at low-momentum transfer on the gross properties of the charge
density, we fit Helm model distributions to the self-consistent mean-field
densities. We find that the changes shown by the electric charge form factor
along each isotonic chain are strongly correlated with the underlying proton
shell structure of the isotones. We conclude that elastic electron scattering
experiments in isotones can provide valuable information about the filling
order and occupation of the single-particle levels of protons.
