Investigation of the Effects of a Spin-Spin Interaction on the Elastic Scattering of Neutrons by Nuclei

Abstract

The effects of an interaction between the spin of the incident neutron and the spin of the target nucleus are considered in the framework of the optical model. It is found that the differential elastic scattering is insensitive to the interaction. However, the interaction splits the single-particle states, and the elastic scattering shows structure as a function of energy when the absorption is small. The spin-spin interaction has negligible effect on the polarization. The rotation parameter $R\left(\theta \right)$ and the asymmetry parameter $A\left(\theta \right)$ are sensitive to the spin-spin interaction for $\theta ={180}^{\circ } \mathrm{and} {90}^{\circ }$, respectively. For angles near the minima in the differential elastic scattering, the depolarization is approximately zero.