Nuclear radii in the high-energy limit of elastic electron scattering

Abstract

From the formula for the energy-derivative of the phase shifts a systematic high-energy expansion of the phase shifts for the elastic scattering of electrons from nuclei is deduced. The coefficients of this expansion can be arranged in terms of inverse powers of the energy containing model-independent quantities of the nuclear charge distribution. It is shown that the mean logarithmic radius exp [〈1n r〉] and the inverse square radius 〈1/r 2〉 − 1 2 determine the high-energy behaviour of the phase shifts for small values of the angular momenta. Applications to the elastic electron and positron scattering from nuclei and to dispersion effects are discussed.