Proton-Proton Bremsstrahlung Including Rescattering

Abstract

The theory of proton-proton bremsstrahlung treating the nuclear interaction exactly and the electromagnetic interaction to first order is formulated so as to include the exact determination of the rescattering term. The effect of the Coulomb interaction between the two protons is not considered. The off-energy-shell nuclear matrix elements are written so as to eliminate the necessity of integrating over the nuclear potential. Coplanar symmetric cross sections are calculated with the one-boson-exchange momentum-dependent potential of Bryan and Scott and the hard-core potential of Hamada and Johnston, including partial-wave contributions of the nuclear matrix elements with $J\le 4$. All results include rescattering corrections, which are shown by explicit calculation to be small (≤15%). Quantitative agreement with existing experiments, including the characteristic quadrupole photon angular distribution, is obtained. Present experiments are inadequate to differentiate definitively between the Hamada-Johnston hard-core potential and the Bryan-Scott momentum-dependent potential.