Coulomb amplitude representation and nuclear diffraction and refraction

Abstract

A new, consistent with wave-optics, method of treating diffraction and refraction in nuclear elastic scattering, is proposed and discussed. The method is based on the decomposition of the total elastic-scattering amplitude, written in a different form than usual, into the amplitude describing pure diffraction, and the rest, i.e., refraction and reflection. It is shown that nuclear diffraction is due to incompleteness of the Coulomb-scattering amplitude and is described by it. It is show that diffraction can be regarded as a kind of ``background'' always present, irrespective of the system being studied. PACS Nos.: 24.10.Ht, 42.25.Fx, 42.25.Gy