Proton Polarization inp−dScattering

Abstract

The proton polarization resulting from proton-deuteron elastic scattering has been measured in a double-scattering experiment. The first scattering took place in helium, which served as a polarizer, and the left-right asymmetry observed in a second scattering in deuterium. Spurious asymmetries were checked by substituting xenon and, separately, helium for deuterium as the second scatterer. Measurements taken at a proton-deuteron scattering energy of $E_p=3.4\mathrm{}$ Mev, $\theta =45\mathrm{}° \mathrm{and} 90°$, and $E_p=3.74\mathrm{}$ Mev, $\theta =45\mathrm{}°$ all yielded results consistent with no polarization. From these data it is concluded that the proton polarization in $p-d$ elastic scattering is <∼10% in this energy region.