Scattering of Fast Neutrons and Protons by Atomic Nuclei

Abstract

The effects of the Pauli principle on the analysis of the scattering of fast neutrons and protons by atomic nuclei are considered. This modifies the usual multiple scattering treatment of such problems in three ways: (1) It is necessary to agree on a convention for deciding which are "scattered" and which are "nuclear" nucleons. (2) The two-body scatterings obtained from the impulse approximation must be properly antisymmetrized. (3) Exchange corrections occur because of the non-orthogonality of the plane wave states for scattered particles and the states for bound particles. The latter corrections seem to be negligible for energies sufficiently high that the multiple-scattering approach is expected to be useful anyway. The present analysis is also applicable to other types of multiple-scattering problems.