Nuclear Scattering of Nucleons and Antinucleons

Abstract

Total cross sections and reaction cross sections for scattering of nucleons and antinucleons from nuclei are calculated in the WKB approximation. The real part of the potential is the effective potential of the relativistic theory proposed in earlier papers, with a radial dependence consistent with the electron scattering results. The absorption coefficient is related to the observed particle-particle cross sections in the usual fashion. The resulting cross sections for nucleons agree quite well with the experimental data up to approximately 250 Mev. However, the high-energy nucleon total cross section and the antinucleon cross sections are too large. This discrepancy presents a real difficulty for the relativistic theory.