The effect of the Pauli exclusion principle in high energy nucleon-nucleus scattering

Abstract

In this work the effect of the antisymmetry of the nuclear wave function on high energy nucleon-nucleus scattering is considered for finite nuclei. The effect is calculated both as a correction to the optical potential and to the nucleon-nucleon cross sections inside the nucleus. In the high energy limit this correction is positive in contrast to the sign of the Pauli principle correction usually applied. This effect exists mainly in the nuclear interior and decreases rapidly in the surface due to its dependence on the square of the nuclear density. For a central potential in a shell model there is no correction for A ≦ 4 nuclei. In the high energy limit the correction factors multiplying the free nucleon-nucleon cross sections in C 12, O 16 and Ca 40 were found to be 1.022, 1.049 and 1.046, respectively. The corrections 0.022, 0.029 and 0.046 are roughly 1 4 to 1 2 of the values predicted for a degenerate Fermi gas.