Multiple scattering expansion with distortion

Abstract

A multiple scattering description of elastic scattering is formulated in terms of impulsive scatterings from single target nucleons and pairs of target nucleons. In this description, distortion effects on the projectile from the residual medium are also described by multiple scattering in terms of the same single and pair amplitudes. At the level of single scattering, this procedure yields the first order optical potential result of Kerman, McManus, and Thaler. When scattering from both single nucleons and pairs of nucleons is included, the method leads to a one-body integral equation which requires the physical projectile-nucleon and projectile-pair transition amplitudes as input. This input is similar, but not exactly equivalent to that required by the spectator expansion for the optical potential truncated at second order. A principal advantage of the present formulation is that there need be no explicit dependence upon the projection operator $Q$ which projects off the target ground state. This feature introduces a scaling which appears to be a direct extension of the first order Kerman, McManus, and Thaler type of scaling. We follow up suggestions arising in the foregoing to show that the exact optical potential to second order in the spectator expansion can also be cast into a form having no explicit dependence upon $Q$, and requiring physical projectile-nucleon and projectile-pair transition amplitudes as input.NUCLEAR REACTIONS Multiple scattering from single nucleons, pairs of nucleons in nucleus. Distortion from residual medium. Optical potential. spectator expansion.