THEORETICALLY UN-PREJUDICED FITS TO PROTON-SCATTERING

By using a spline interpolation method applied to all components of the proton optical potential we have fitted elastic scattering from 40Ca and from 16O at a range of energies. The potentials are highly oscillatory and we have shown that similar oscillations are found when the spline fitting procedure is applied to pseudo-data generated from potentials of known l-dependence. Moreover, we show how to find an l-independent potential equivalent to one that is l-dependent and we find that it is oscillatory and that various characteristic features of empirical spline fit potentials can be explained. Thus, by fitting the data with model independent l-independent potentials we have found support for the contention that the nucleon optical potential should be viewed as being l-dependent. This work may be regarded as an example of the kind of physical information that can be gained by pursuing exact fits to proton elastic scattering data. © 1979.