Relativistic DWBA calculations for proton inelastic scattering

Abstract

The inelastic scattering of nucleons leading to the excitation of collective states in even-even nuclei is described using a relativistic DWBA approach. The distorted waves are Dirac spinors obtained using complex vector and scalar optical potentials and the transition operators are generated by deforming these potentials. The results are compared with inelastic cross section, analyzing power and polarization transfer data in the energy range 200–800 MeV. The results are generally in good agreement with the data for collective states with small deformation parameters and, in the case of analyzing power, are somewhat superior to equivalent calculations based on the Schroedinger equation. For strongly deformed nuclei the present calculations fail in providing adequate description of the inelastic data. We compare our results with those from earlier calculations.