Systematic investigation of three-nucleon force effects in elastic scattering of polarized protons from deuterons at intermediate energies

The question, whether the high-quality nucleon-nucleon potentials can successfully describe the three-nucleon system, and to what extent three-nucleon forces (3NFs) play a role, has become very important in nuclear few-body physics. One kinematic region where effects because of 3NFs show up is in the minimum of the differential cross section of elastic nucleon-deuteron scattering. Another observable, which could give an indication about the contribution of the spin to 3NFs, is the vector analyzing power. To investigate the importance of 3NFs systematically over a broad range of intermediate energies, both observables of elastic proton-deuteron scattering have been measured at proton bombarding energies of 108, 120, 135, 150, 170, and 190 MeV, covering an angular range in the center-of-mass system between ${30}^{\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}}$ and ${170}^{\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}}$. The results show unambiguously the shortcomings of calculations employing only two-body forces and the necessity of the inclusion of 3NFs. They also show the limitations of the results of the present day models for few-nucleon systems at backward angles, especially at higher beam energies. New calculations based on chiral perturbation theory are also presented and compared with the data at the lowest energy.

Перевод пока недоступен