Coulomb wave‐functions

Abstract

It is well known that magnetism is closely related to the fundamental problems of physics and that even ferromagnetism cannot be understood without a rather thorough study of atomic phenomena. Nuclear studies are throwing a new and deeper light into the constitution of matter and one may hope that through a study of nuclear phenomena a proper understanding of magnetism and electricty will be reached. One of the ways of learning the nature of nuclear binding‐forces consists in studying the rate of reactions caused by the bombardment of nuclei with charged projectiles such as protons, deuterons, and alpha particles. In order to interpret the experimental results in terms of nuclear binding‐forces it is necessary to take into account rather accurately the effect of the Coulombian repulsion between the nucleus and the incident projectile. It is usual to treat this part of the problem by approximate methods which may at times lead to misleading results because the effect of the Coulombian repulsion is large and a small error in its estimate may lead to a considerable error in conclusions about the nuclear structure. The object of the computations presented below is to remove these uncertainties and to provide accurate values for the wave‐functions which enter the calculations.