Phase-Shift Calculation of High-Energy Electron Scattering

Abstract

The details of a phase-shift calculation of high-energy electron scattering by nuclei are given, together with some preliminary results. A new method for summing the Legendre series for the Coulomb scattering amplitude is described. The results indicate that the first Born approximation does not give cross sections accurate enough for a reliable interpretation of the experiments. From a comparison of the few theoretical cross sections already obtained with the experiments in gold at 125 Mev, very tentative conclusions about the nuclear charge distribution are drawn. It is pointed out that an analysis of results at two or more energies will be a much more sensitive test of possible charge distributions.