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We study the impact of nuclear structure uncertainties on a measurement of the weak charge of ^12C at the future MESA facility in Mainz. Information from a large variety of nuclear models, accurately calibrated to the ground-state properties of selected nuclei, suggest that a 0. 3% precision measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry at forward angles will not be compromised by nuclear structure effects, thereby allowing a world-leading determination of the weak charge of ^12C. Further, we show that a combination of measurements of the parity-violating asymmetry at forward and backward angles for the same electron beam energy can be used to extract information on the nuclear weak charge distribution. We conclude that a 0. 34% precision on the weak radius of ^12C may be achieved by performing a 3% precision measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry at backward angles.
Cadeddu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.