Relativity, Nuclear Polarizability, and Screening in Sub-Coulomb Elastic Scattering

Abstract

Elastic scattering of $p$-shell nuclear projectiles from $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ has been examined for deviations from Rutherford scattering. Four effects can be important: atomic screening, vacuum polarization, nuclear polarizability, and a relativistic effect of dynamical origin. The presence of atomic screening, nuclear polarizability, and the relativistic effect was observed, thus constituting the first measurement of this relativistic effect using complex nuclei and the first measurement of nuclear polarizability in an external Coulomb field.