Application of Partial-Wave Analyticity to Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering

Abstract

In order to give a quantitative discussion of models for nucleon-nucleon scattering which are founded on analyticity and unitarity of the $S$ matrix, the fact that each partial-wave amplitude has a nonvanishing imaginary part in the physical region must be dealt with unambiguously. That goal is achieved by evaluating certain integrals over the physical region, using rigorous bounds when experimental data are unavailable. The resulting modified amplitudes have known experimental uncertainty, and can validly be compared directly with dynamical models which do not themselves satisfy the requirements of unitarity, such as the popular single-boson-exchange models. The modified amplitudes are tabulated and various tests for models are discussed.