Charged particle scattering in harmonic traps

Abstract

The trap method provides a novel way to extract phase shifts of neutral-particle scattering from bound-state calculations. It has been adopted successfully in several ab initio calculations to study neutron-nucleus scattering, where there is no long-range Coulomb interaction between the target and projectile. How to incorporate the effects of Coulomb interaction is a crucial problem in the trap method. In this Letter, we examine the robustness of the new proposed Coulomb-corrected Busch-Englert-Rzażewski-Wilkens (BERW) formula Guo (2021) [25] by taking proton-proton scattering as the test ground. While the numerical results are generally well consistent with conventional methods, a number of anomalous scattering energies are identified, where the Coulomb-corrected BERW formula gives less satisfactory results. The underlying theoretical reasons are analyzed in depth, which contributes to a more complete understanding of the applicable scope of the Coulomb-corrected BERW formula. Our study lays the key foundation for future ab initio studies of scattering processes between proton and light nuclei based on the trap method.