The quark model and the spin observables for nucleon-nucleon scattering

Abstract

Polarization observables for the nucleon-nucleon scattering are investigated in the framework of the non-relativistic constituent quark model below T lab = 250 MeV. The polarization observables obtained either from theoretically computed phase shifts or from experimental phase shifts are compared. In general the same polarization observable calculated from various experimental phase-shift analyses are not identical. The difference depends very much on the energy and the nucleon-nucleon system considered. The typical deviation to the the theoretically computed polarizations is roughly of the same order. This means a surprisingly good agreement is found. Furthermore, there are indications that some of the NN polarization observables are more sensitive to variations of small distance interaction parameters than the differential cross section or other simple polarization observables. An extended version of this paper including the full set of plots of all 25 polarization observables for four energies may be obtained upon request directly from the authors.