EFFECTS OF ELECTRIC POLARIZABILITY OF NUCLEI IN LOW-ENERGY COLLISIONS AND ACTION RADIUS OF THE POLARIZATION POTENTIAL

Abstract

Recent works devoted to investigating the role of electric polarizability of nuclei in elastic and nucleosynthesis reactions are critically and constructively reviewed, in order to formulate some problems of the low-energy potential scattering theory. Possible methods for solving these problems are outlined. One of the problems, a correct definition of the range of action of the polarization potential, is discussed in detail. An intuitively clear conception of this radius — the lower bound of the distance range, where the polarization potential may be replaced by identical zero — is used as a starting point. The fact that this bound should be defined in each concrete case is demonstrated by the results obtained by exploration of the pp reaction and the S-wave π±d-elastic collisions. Also discussed are numerical and analytical methods for finding the action radius depending on the studied function, the accuracy required for its evaluation, the scattering energy and the sign of the Coulomb potential.