  A benchmark experiment on 208Pb shows that polarized proton inelastic
scattering at very forward angles including 0{\deg} is a powerful tool for
high-resolution studies of electric dipole (E1) and spin magnetic dipole (M1)
modes in nuclei over a broad excitation energy range to test up-to-date nuclear
models. The extracted E1 polarizability leads to a neutron skin thickness
r_skin = 0.156+0.025-0.021 fm in 208Pb derived within a mean-field model [Phys.
Rev. C 81, 051303 (2010)], thereby constraining the symmetry energy and its
density dependence, relevant to the description of neutron stars.
