format: text

text:
# Isospin and density dependences of nuclear matter symmetry energy coefficients

## 1 Introduction

The symmetry energy coefficients and their dependences on the density and isospin symmetry are of relevance, for example, for the description of macroscopic nuclear properties as well as for proto-neutron and neutron stars. In the case of the neutron-proton (n-p) symmetry energy coefficient (s.e.c) of nuclear matter ($`a_\tau `$) it represents the tendency of nuclear forces to have greater binding energies (E/A) for symmetric systems - equal number of protons and neutrons. It contributes as a coefficient for the squared neutron-proton asymmetry in usual macroscopic mass formula in the parabolic approximation:

$$E/A=H_0(A,Z)+a_\tau (NZ)^2/A^2,$$
(1)
where $`H_0`$ does not depend on the asymmetry, Z, N and A are the proton, neutron and mass numbers respectively. Higher orders effects of the asymmetry (proportional to $`(NZ)^n`$ for $`n2`$ ) are usually expected to be less relevant for the equation of state (EOS) of nuclear matter based on such parameterizations . $`a_\tau `$ is also the parameter which measures the response of the system to a perturbation which tends to separate protons from neutrons. It is given by the static polarizability of the system (the inverse isospin screening function) which also should depend on the asymmetry of the medium. In the scalar channel one can define the (dipolar) incompressibility which is related to the nuclear matter incompressibility . These two coefficients (isovector and scalar) and their dependences on the neutron-proton asymmetry were initially investigated in a previous work . Other symmetry coefficients may also be defined in nuclear matter, for instance, the spin $`a_\sigma `$ and spin-isovector $`a_{\sigma \tau }`$ ones. The former would correspond to the difference in the binding energy due the inclusion of a polarized nucleon in the medium whereas the second involves the distinction between neutrons and protons as well. A calculation for the dynamical and static polarizabilities - proportional to the inverse of such symmetry coefficients in asymmetric matter - was done using Skyrme effective forces in . The spin channel is relevant for the study of the neutrino interaction with matter because it couples with axial vector current together with the scalar channel . A suppression of the spin susceptibility (in this work we will be dealing rather with its inverse, the spin symmetry coefficient - $`A_{1,0}`$, as shown in sections 2 and 3, corresponding also to an increase of the Landau parameter $`G_0`$) lead to the suppression of Gamow Teller transitions which are of interest for the supernovae mechanism . Calculations with Skyrme interactions usually result in smaller $`G_0`$ (corresponding to smaller spin symmetry coefficients) than microscopic calculations leading to instabilities associated to ferromagnetic polarized states . In the present work we show this conclusion about Skyrme interactions is not necessarily correct. The spin-isospin channel has been associated with instabilities which would lead to pion condensation. In the language of Migdal-Landau parameters one would have the parameter $`G_0^{}<1`$ for the formation of such condensates.

In the present work we show that these coefficients may provide us with a way of checking the stability of asymmetric nuclear matter with respect to the explicit isospin asymmetry. Another aim is to articulate the idea that different Skyrme-type forces may be appropriate to the description of diverse phenomena at variable ranges of the nuclear density and asymmetry by extending the previous studies of s.e.c. Some Skyrme interactions will be used to assess the possible behavior of these functions. The parameters of one of the forces we use (SLyb) were fitted from results of neutron matter properties obtained from microscopic calculations in . Other forces (SkSC4, SkSC6 and SkSC10), which have slightly different density dependencies, had their parameters fixed by adjusting a large amount of nuclear masses .

This paper reviews and extends the works presented in  and it is organized as follows. In the next section we remind an argument previously developed to investigate generalized static polarizabities which allow for the study of the nuclear matter stability. In section 3 the static polarizabilities in the four channels of the particle-hole interaction with several Skyrme forces is studied in asymmetric nuclear matter at variable densities as derived from the linear response method. Next a new stability condition with respect to neutron-proton fluctuations asymmetry is proposed. In the last section possible consequences are pointed out and the results are summarized.

## 2 Generalized Symmetry Energy Coefficients

We review a qualitative argument from  for exploring them. We consider a small amplitude ($`ϵ`$) external perturbation which acts, through the third Pauli isospin matrix $`\tau _3`$, in nuclear matter separating nucleons with isospin up and down 111 This argument is valid for the four channels. It is enough to consider other external perturbations: $`\sigma _3`$, $`\sigma _3\tau _3`$ and 1 for the spin, spin-isospin and scalar channels respectively.. This originates fluctuations $`\delta \rho =\delta \rho _n\delta \rho _p\beta `$ of the nucleon densities. The energy of the system can be written as:

$$H=H_0+A_{0,1}\frac{(\rho _n\rho _p)^2}{\rho }+ϵ\beta ,$$
(2)
where $`𝒜_{s,t}`$ is the isovector symmetry coefficient ($`s=0,t=1`$ \- spin, isospin) usually denoted by $`a_\tau ,J`$ or $`\beta `$. For the other channels $`(s,t)`$ one defines different symmetry coefficients. We can re-write the n-p density difference in terms of $`\beta `$ as: $`\rho _n\rho _p=(\rho _{n,(0)}\rho _{p,(0)}+\beta )`$, where the subscript (0) indicates static densities, without the external source. Although one is dealing with an infinite system, the arguments are to be valid for finite nuclei.

The polarizability is defined as the ratio of the density fluctuation to the amplitude of the external perturbation and it can be written as :

$$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Pi }^{s,t}\frac{\beta }{ϵ}=\frac{\rho }{2𝒜_{s,t}(b,\beta )},\hfill & \end{array}$$
(3)
where we consider the general channel (s,t) as done in . Note that $`𝒜_{s,t}`$ is a function of $`b`$ and $`\beta `$ and these parameters may be related, as argued below. The occurrence of these functional dependences of $`𝒜_{s,t}`$ can be found just by the stability condition with respect to the fluctuation from expression (2):

$$\begin{array}{cc}\frac{dH}{d\beta }=0.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(4)
### 2.1  Isospin dependence of $`𝒜_{s,t}`$

The neutron proton asymmetry used in the present work is defined by the neutron and proton densities $`\rho _n,\rho _p`$ as:

$$\begin{array}{cc}b=\frac{\rho _n}{\rho _p}1.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(5)
It varies from $`b=0`$, in symmetric nuclear matter, up to infinity, in neutron matter. The coefficient $`b`$ is related to a frequently used asymmetry coefficient:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\alpha =\frac{(2\rho _{0n}\rho _0)}{\rho _0},\hfill & \end{array}$$
(6)
by the expression:

$$\begin{array}{cc}b=2\alpha /(1\alpha ).\hfill & \end{array}$$
(7)
As stated above $`𝒜_{s,t}`$ is a function of the density fluctuation $`\beta `$. Although $`\beta `$ is not the explicit n-p asymmetry itself (given by $`b`$) we will consider that it depends on it (as it was also argued in ). We consider, as shown below, these parameters are related to each other and therefore we will write $`𝒜=𝒜(\beta )`$ shortly. In  different prescriptions were discussed for $`\beta =\beta (b)`$ in the calculation of the response function of asymmetric nuclear matter. We have used (and it was shown to be a reasonable prescription for the dynamical response function ) the one which leads to the following relation between the fluctuation $`\beta `$ and the explicit n-p asymmetry $`b`$:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\beta =\delta \rho _n\left(\frac{2+b}{1+b}\right),\hfill & \end{array}$$
(8)
Where $`\delta \rho _n`$ is the neutron density fluctuation. In the n-p symmetric limit $`\beta =2\delta \rho _n`$ and in another limit, in neutron matter, $`\beta =\delta \rho _n`$. The above prescription (expression (8)) is based on the assumption that the density fluctuations are proportional to the respective density of neutrons and protons, i.e., $`\delta \rho _n/\beta =\rho _n/\rho `$, being $`\rho `$ the total density. In spite of being rather appropriated for the isovector channel, this kind of assumption can be considered as a starting point for the other channels (spin, scalar) in asymmetric nuclear matter. Prescription (8) is therefore model-dependent and different choices for it yield other forms for the (asymmetric) static screening functions. The dynamic response functions are less sensitive to this prescription .

¿From the solution of the polarizability (3) we calculate the first derivative with relation to $`b`$:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\frac{d\beta }{db}=\frac{ϵ\rho }{2𝒜_{0,1}^2}\frac{d𝒜^{0,1}}{db}=\frac{\beta }{𝒜_{0,1}}\frac{d𝒜^{0,1}}{db}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(9)
Another expression can be obtained from the relation between $`b`$ and $`\beta `$ of (8). It yields:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\frac{d\beta }{db}=\frac{\beta }{(2+b)(1+b)}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(10)
Equating these two last equations we obtain:

$$\begin{array}{cc}𝒜^{0,1}\frac{\beta }{(2+b)(1+b)}=\beta \frac{d𝒜^{0,1}}{db},\hfill & \end{array}$$
(11)
¿From which it is possible to derive the following relation between the isospin s.e.c. and the n-p asymmetry :

$$\begin{array}{cc}𝒜^{0,1}=𝒜_{sym}^{0,1}\frac{2+2b}{2+b}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(12)
In this expression $`𝒜_{sym}=a_\tau 30MeV`$ is the s.e.c. of symmetric nuclear matter ($`b=0`$). For $`b=2`$ (neutron density three times larger than the proton density) we obtain $`𝒜=1.5𝒜_{sym}`$. In the limit of neutron matter $`𝒜(b\mathrm{})=2𝒜_{sym}`$. The prescription of expression (8) was the relevant information for this calculation. Any other relation between $`b`$ and $`\beta `$ will induce different asymmetry dependence of the symmetry energy coefficient . Another assumption for deriving expression (12) was that $`\rho `$ is independent of $`b`$. This would be non trivially different if one considers a complete self consistent calculation with the equation of state of a proto-neutron star, for example.

## 3  Generalized Screening functions with Skyrme forces

In this section in in the next one we nearly extend the analysis of . A nearly exact expression for the dynamical polarizability of a non relativistic hot asymmetric nuclear matter at variable densities was derived with Skyrme interactions in . The approximations were: (i) to equate the asymmetry coefficient defined for the momentum density to the density asymmetry coefficient (the variation of the corresponding term yields differences in the response function of less than $`1\%`$), (ii) to choose a particular (discussed and justified ) prescription for the asymmetry density fluctuations \- expression (8).

The generalized static screening functions $`A_{s,t}`$ (or symmetry energy coefficients according to the discussed before) in asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature can be written as :

$$\begin{array}{cc}A_{s,t}=\frac{\rho }{N}\{1+2\overline{V_0^{s,t}}N_c+6V_1^{s,t}M_p^{}(\rho _c+\rho _d)+12M_p^{}V_1^{s,t}\overline{V_0^{s,t}}(N_c\rho _d\rho _cN_d)+\hfill & \\ (V_1^{s,t})^2(36(M_p^{})^2\rho _c\rho _d16M_p^{}M_cN_d)\}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(13)
The densities $`\rho _v`$, $`M_v`$ and $`N_v`$ are given respectively by:

$$\rho _v=v\rho _n+(1v)\rho _p,M_v=vM_n+(1v)M_pN_v=vN_n+(1v)N_p,$$

where $`v`$ stands for n-p asymmetry coefficients ($`c,d`$) defined below (a measure of the fraction of neutron densities). The above densities at finite temperature are defined by:

$$(N_q,\rho _q,M_q)=\frac{2M_p^{}}{\pi ^2}𝑑f_q(k)(k,k^3,k^5).$$

In these expressions $`f_q(k)`$ are the fermion occupation numbers for neutrons ($`q=n`$) and protons ($`q=p`$) which will be considered only for the zero temperature limit. In this case: $`df_q(k)=\delta (kk_F^q)dk_q`$, which makes the above integrals trivial. $`\overline{V_0}`$ and $`V_1`$ are functions of the Skyrme forces parameters (see in ) and $`M_p^{}=m_p^{}/(1+a/2)`$ is a modified effective mass for the proton. Besides that, the four asymmetry coefficients are:

$$\begin{array}{cc}a=\frac{m_p^{}}{m_n^{}}1,b=\frac{\rho _{0n}}{\rho _{0p}}1,c=\frac{1+b}{2+b},d=\frac{1}{1+(1+b)^{\frac{2}{3}}}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(14)
### 3.1 Results for Skyrme interactions

In this section we present results for the s.e.c. using Skyrme forces with the expression (13) in all the four channels of the particle-hole interaction. The scalar, isovector and spin channels were initially discussed in a previous works  and those analysis is extended here. The present analysis on the spin and spin-isospin channels was not done before.

In Figure 1 we show the generalized isovector symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{0,1}`$ as a function of the ratio of the nuclear density to the saturation density ($`\rho /\rho _0`$) for Skyrme interactions SLyb , SkSC4, SkSC6 and SkSC10 . Since Skyrme forces are not necessarily expected to describe Physics at high densities we investigate the behavior of the symmetry energy coefficients (s.e.c., which can also be called generalized screening functions for each channel) from 0.5 $`\rho _0`$ up to 2 $`\rho _0`$. The symmetry energy coefficient for some of the forces in Figure 1 reach a maximum value when $`\rho _0<\rho 1.7\rho _0`$ and then decrease. This last behavior is typical of non relativistic calculations. There are two forces which yield different behaviors: SkSC4 makes the slope of $`A_{0,1}`$ much less negative reaching an instability point ($`A_{0,1}<0`$) at smaller densities than the other forces and SkSC10 for which the slope is larger and positive. This last behavior is present in relativistic calculations. The point in which the symmetry energy coefficient is zero would correspond to a phase transition of nuclear matter to an asymmetric state of neutron or proton matter. Although the usual Skyrme forces are not well suited for high densities there is a tendency of a decrease of this screening function (s.e.c.) until a phase transition in a dense nuclear system. The dependence on $`b`$, on the other hand, leads to a more repulsive behavior as seen in Figures 2 and 3 eventually compensating the attractiveness of low or high densities.

In Figure 2 the same parameter, $`A_{0,1}`$, is shown as a function of $`\rho /\rho _0`$ for the interactions SLy, SkSC4 and SkSC6 for non zero n-p asymmetries, i.e., for b=.25 and b=.54. The latter corresponds to a n-p asymmetry of the nucleus of $`{}_{}{}^{208}Pb`$. The absolute values of the isovector symmetry energy coefficient (s.e.c) increase with relation to the symmetric nuclear matter but the behavior with varying $`\rho `$ is nearly the same in general. However, for the force SkSC6, the isovector screening function has a higher slope in this range of densities. The same coefficient as a function of the n-p asymmetry b is shown in Figure 3 at the densities $`0.5,1`$ and $`2\rho _0`$. Again we note different behaviors depending on the force. For the forces SLy and SkSC4 the s.e.c. increases, as noted above, for higher densities and n-p asymmetries but for $`\rho =2\rho _0`$ the values are smaller at higher asymmetries. For the force SkSC6 the higher the density the higher the slope with $`b`$. The tendency is that the interaction becomes more repulsive. Whereas the dependence of $`A_{0,1}`$ on $`b`$ is a new possibility its dependence on $`\rho `$ has been studied quite extensively and a distinction between the behavior of relativistic and non relativistic models can be done which still are nearly observed here. While relativistic calculations lead to a continuous increase of the symmetry energy coefficient , non relativistic (microscopic or not) calculations usually yield a saturation at densities of the order of $`2.5\rho _0`$ with a decreasing value at higher densities . Although these are the more common results there is a non relativistic variational calculation with three body forces  which presents an increasing symmetry energy coefficient for higher densities. All these calculations adopt the parabolic approximation for the symmetry energy as discussed by  222We leave for a forthcoming work a discussion about corrections to the parabolic approximation in the frame of a relativistic model, following ideas contained in section 2 of the present work and in .. We have just shown, however, that it is possible to obtain the behavior typical from relativistic calculations with the Skyrme force SkSC10.

The spin symmetry energy coefficient is plotted in Figures 4, 5 and 6 as a function of $`\rho /\rho _0`$ and $`b`$ respectively. In Figure 4 one sees that, for increasing densities, $`A_{1,0}`$ may have different slopes. For the interactions SkSC4, SkSC6 and SkSC10 the spin- symmetry energy coefficient is already negative at low densities and decrease still more with $`\rho `$. This feature is clear in Figure 5 where the same spin s.e.c. is shown for non zero n-p asymmetries. These forces exhibit a behavior typical of a ferromagnetic matter with stronger spin alignment as density increases. With the force SLy, on the other hand, the spin symmetry coefficient indicates that no polarized state occurs the range of densities under study.

In Figure 6 the spin symmetry energy is shown as a function of $`b`$ with forces SLy, SkSC4 and SkSC6 for some different densities. The common trend is the increase of $`A_{1,0}`$ with $`b`$, i.e., at very asymmetric matter the spin interaction tends to become more repulsive. However the particular behavior of the spin s.e.c. with $`b`$ is different for each effective force at a given density. This means that whereas for the SLy force the increase of n-p asymmetry makes $`A_{1,0}`$ to increase (proportionally) at each density considered, for the forces SkSC4 and SkSC6 the slope is higher for higher densities. This makes the curves of $`A_{1,0}`$ for different densities to cross at certain n-p asymmetry. We can compare our results to the ratio of spin susceptibility of interacting neutron matter (for which $`b\mathrm{}`$) to the non interacting Fermi gas obtained by Fantoni, Sarsa and Schmidt  by means of the auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo method. This ratio is proportional to the polarizability as obtained in expression (13) and therefore inversely proportional to the spin symmetry coefficient $`A_{1,0}`$. First of all we note that, in most cases, contrarily to what we find, the values they find are all positive for the range of densities considered by them, from $`0.75\rho _0`$ up to $`2.5\rho _0`$. However the slope seems to be nearly the same as that we obtain for low values of the n-p asymmetry. Consequently they may obtain instabilities for higher density neutron matter whereas we do not observe this result in our calculations with Skyrme forces (the comparison is meaningful for neutron matter: $`b`$ is very large). Other comments about this are drawn in section 5.

The spin-isospin symmetry energy coefficient for symmetric matter ($`b=0`$) as a function of $`\rho /\rho _0`$ is shown in Figure 7. For all the forces, $`A_{1,1}`$ are decreasing functions of the density and they become negative between $`\rho 1.8\rho _0`$ and $`2.1\rho _0`$. The only significant difference comes from the value of $`A_{1,1}`$ at low densities, being that SLy force implies a larger value than the SkSC forces. In Figure 8 the same analysis holds for asymmetric matter for $`b=.25`$ and $`.54`$. However, with increasing asymmetry, the instability point is changed differently for each of the forces. This is very interesting as well and very similar to the spin channel (of figure 5). The SLy force presents the spin-isospin coefficient which changes much less than the SkSC forces. For these Skyrme interactions instabilities associated to pion condensation would be found already at low densities, $`A_{1,1}<0`$ . Therefore, for the Skyrme type interactions we use, we expect a there is a connection between the appearance of spin instabilities (leading to ferromagnetic states) and spin-isospin instabilities (for pion condensation), even for not very asymmetric nuclear matter (up to $`b0.54`$).

In Figure 9, $`A_{1,1}`$ is plotted as a function of $`b`$ for different Skyrme forces. In this Figure the behavior of the spin-isospin s.e.c. with the n-p asymmetry parameter b is shown for different nuclear matter densities (below, equal to and above the saturation density). It can be noted that for the force SLy an increasing n-p asymmetry (b) makes the spin-isovector interaction continuously more repulsive instead of allow for attractiveness while the opposite behavior is found for SkSC6. One would find the instabilities associated to pion condensation at roughly any nuclear density for SkSC6 at nearly any n-p asymmetry, which does not seem to be realistic . The other forces SkSC also reproduce this last behavior with different slopes. We are lead to conclude that Skyrme interactions may be able to reproduce roughly well any kind of dependence of the (generalized) symmetry energy coefficients in a particular range of density and/or n-p asymmetry.

In Figures 10 and 11 the scalar s.e.c. is shown as a function of $`\rho /\rho _0`$ for b=0 and b=0.25 and .54 respectively. These Figures show that, roughly speaking, all the interactions are attractive or weakly repulsive at low densities and more repulsive as density increase. This may be related to the instabilities found, for example, in . However it is interesting to see in Figure 11 that, depending on the interaction, with the increase of the n-p asymmetry the scalar symmetry energy coefficient is reduced. This occurs for lower densities but not necessarily at higher $`\rho `$. This is well seen in Figure 12 for $`A_{0,0}`$ as a function of $`b`$. This may be understood as a general tendency of resulting instabilities for (very) asymmetric nuclear matter with a curious exception for force SLy at a density $`2\rho _0`$. The behavior of the incompressibility with increasing n-p asymmetries, at the saturation density, for the force SLy is nearly the same as that found in other calculations with Skyrme forces or relativistic calculation  and microscopic variational study at finite temperatures . For a higher density ($`2\rho _0`$), however, this scalar coefficient increases with $`b`$ for the same SLy force. A comparison of this kind was explicitly done in . The other forces exhibit smaller slopes and make $`A_{0,0}`$ to decrease faster. This last kind of behavior, more pronounced, was also found in other works (for the bulk incompressibility modulus $`K_{\mathrm{}}`$ depending on the used interaction . Therefore the behavior of the incompressibilities ($`K_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`A_{0,0}`$ \- the ”dipolar incompressibility”) with n-p asymmetry depend strongly on the used interaction.

## 4  Stability of Asymmetric nuclear matter

Consider that the binding energy can be minimized with respect to $`\beta `$ yielding an equilibrium state for nuclear matter. This means that: $`d(E/A)/d\beta =0`$, yielding a differential equation for $`𝒜_{s,t}`$ as a function of $`\beta `$ or $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{s,t}`$ by expression (3). In the case $`\rho `$ is not dependent on $`\beta `$ the solution for this resulting differential equation is given by :

$$\begin{array}{cc}\frac{𝒜_{s,t}}{\rho _0}=\frac{C}{\mathrm{\Pi }_{s,t}^2}\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Pi }_{s,t}},\hfill & \end{array}$$
(15)
where $`C`$ is a constant. Inverting the above expression we find:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Pi }_{s,t}=\frac{\rho _0}{2𝒜_{s,t}}\pm \sqrt{\frac{4C_{s,t}\rho _0}{𝒜_{s,t}}+\frac{\rho _0^2}{4𝒜_{s,t}^2}},\hfill & \end{array}$$
(16)
which, in principle, can be either real or complex. Furthermore, there may appear two branches of solutions for $`b0`$. We want to emphasize that the relation between this expression and those obtaining from the linear response with Skyrme forces is not completely understood. As a boundary condition one requires the usual expression for the symmetric limit obtaining:

$$\begin{array}{cc}C^{(s,t)}=\frac{\rho _0}{4𝒜_{s,t}^{sym}}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(17)
Such that the corresponding polarizability of symmetric nuclear matter $`\mathrm{\Pi }_0^{s,t}`$ by: $`\mathrm{\Pi }_0^{s,t}=\rho _0/(2𝒜_{s,t}^{sym})`$ .

To really be a stable minimum of the binding energy the second derivative of the energy must be positive. Using the form given by expression (3), and the approximation that $`\rho _0`$ does not depend on $`\beta `$, we can write this second derivative as:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\frac{d^2H}{d\beta ^2}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Pi }}+\frac{4\mathrm{\Pi }}{\rho _0}\frac{d𝒜}{d\mathrm{\Pi }}+\frac{\mathrm{\Pi }^2}{\rho _0}\frac{d^2𝒜}{d\mathrm{\Pi }^2}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(18)
With the solution given by expression (15) we find, in the $`(s,t)`$ channel, that:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\frac{d^2H}{d\beta _{s,t}^2}=\frac{𝒜_{s,t}}{\rho }\frac{C}{\mathrm{\Pi }_{s,t}^2}=\pm \frac{2\sqrt{\rho ^2+4C\rho _0𝒜_{s,t}}}{\rho \mathrm{\Pi }^{s,t}}>0.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(19)
The constant $`C`$ may be negative (stable symmetric nuclear matter according to expression (17)) or positive and $`𝒜`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ also may have negative or positive signs. It is possible to have a case where the symmetric nuclear matter is unstable, $`𝒜_{sym}<0`$, but a stable asymmetric nuclear matter is obtained, with positive $`d^2H/d\beta ^2`$. This is a curious result. It seems to suggest that the stability line of nuclei can occur, at least with its qualitative real behavior, without introducing explicitly electromagnetic forces.

For the sake of comparison we quote the usual stability condition for a Fermi liquid in each channel of the interaction. It is given by:

$$a_{s,t}=N_0(1+J_0^{s,t})>0.$$
(20)
where $`J_0^{s,t}`$ stands for any of $`F_0,F_0^{},G_0,G_0^{}`$ respectively for the scalar ($`s=0,t=0`$), isovector ($`s=0,t=1`$), spin ($`s=1,t=0`$) and spin-isovector ($`s=1,t=1`$) channels . These conditions correspond to the denominators of the response function of symmetric nuclear matter at zero temperature and at saturation density.

## 5 Further discussion and Summary

The expressions we have derived and used for the (isospin) symmetry energy coefficient (with and without effective Skyrme forces) break isospin symmetry because the results for an excess of neutron (density) is different from those of higher proton fraction. In principle this is expected although usually considered to be small in mass formulae for finite nuclei . With the expressions we derived the effects of this symmetry breaking can be expected to be larger eventually related to other effects .

Recently it has been proposed that in the core of dense (neutron) stars there may occur a phase of matter in which color degrees of freedom are deconfined generating di-quark condensates in channels in which the interaction is attractive. Several possibel scenarios for this color superconducting phase of matter can be drawn, among them the color-flavor locked phase . We would like to point out that with the increase of the isospin symmetry energy coefficient, for instance, the resulting fraction of protons, after the supernovae stage, would be higher hindering the emergency of a pure neutron matter in the death of the star. As a consequence the final proportion of up and down quarks would be different than that from a pure neutron star. This may modify the color superconducting phase. These remarks may apply to relativistic or high energy heavy ions collisions which generates high baryonic density.

The relevance of the isovector symmetry energy coefficient and its dependence on the nuclear density has been intensively studied due to its relevance to the determination of the nuclear matter equation of state which is very important for the comprehension of high energy ions collisions and eventually the dynamics of astrophysical objects. An interesting recent study was done by Bao An Lin  who however only is concerned about the parabolic approximation without a more general form of the asymmetry term. This extension would be of high interest for the field.

Summarizing, the dependence of the s.e.c. on the n-p asymmetry was studied extending the results of ref. . Generalized symmetry energy coefficients of asymmetric (non relativistic) nuclear matter at variable densities were investigated. The density and n-p asymmetry dependences of the s.e.c. in the different channels were analyzed for different Skyrme forces. They may yield very different behaviors including the possibility (or not) of nuclear matter to undergo phase transitions. These forces can describe different behaviors of the symmetry energy coefficients. Although one should not believe that only one Skyrme force parametrization could account for the description of all nuclear observables at different densities, temperatures and n-p asymmetries it is acceptable the idea that several parametrizations could hopefully describe different ranges of the dependence of nuclear observables (as the s.e.c.) with these variables. Whereas the isovector, scalar and spin channels were rather an extension of the work presented in  the results for spin and spin-isospin channels are scarce in the literature. We showed that, for the Skyrme forces under consideration (SLy, SkSC4, 6, 10) there is a kind of correlation between the two channels and the possibility of occurring simultaneous ferromagnetic instabilities and/or pion condensation at high densities and n-p asymmetries. Therefore, in principle, different values can be expected for the (bulk) symmetry energy coefficients in nuclei and nuclear matter, with different n-p asymmetries, and neutron stars. In the spin channels it is possible to expect spin polarized asymmetric matter yielding magnetic fields in neutron stars, as discussed in , according to the results in figures 4,5 and 6 for forces the SkSC. However with the increase of $`b`$ we find that the spin interaction may be rather repulsive, hindering this magnetization effect with the use of these Skyrme forces in the range of densities analyzed here. A similar behavior for the spin-isospin channel (which may indicate instabilities for pion condensation) was found with the same Skyrme interactions. A new stability condition for an asymmetric nuclear medium was proposed. It is given by:

$$\frac{d^2H}{d\beta _{s,t}^2}=\frac{𝒜_{s,t}}{\rho }\frac{C}{\mathrm{\Pi }_{s,t}^2}=\pm \frac{2\sqrt{\rho ^2+4C\rho _0𝒜_{s,t}}}{\rho \mathrm{\Pi }^{s,t}}>0.$$

Where $`C`$ is a constant and $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{s,t}=\rho /(2𝒜_{s,t})`$ for each channel.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by FAPESP, Brazil.

Figure captions

Figure 1  Neutron-proton symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{0,1}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{0,1})`$ of symmetric nuclear matter as a function of the ratio of density to the saturation density ($`u=\rho /\rho _0`$) for interactions SLyb (dotted-dashed line), SkSC4 (solid), SkSC6 (dotted), SkSC10 (dashed).

Figure 2 The same as Figure 1 for interactions SLy with b=0.25 (thick dotted-dashed line), b=.54 (thin dotted-dashed line), SkSC6 with b=.25 (thick dotted), b=.54 (thin dotted), SkSC4 with b=.25 (thick solid) and b=.54 (thin solid).

Figure 3 Neutron-proton symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{0,1}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{0,1})`$ as a function of the asymmetry coefficient $`b`$ at different densities: solid lines for SkSC4 (very thick: $`\rho =.5\rho _0`$, thick:$`\rho =\rho _0`$, thin:$`\rho =2\rho _0`$,), dotted lines for SkSC6 (same conventions as SkSC4) and dotted-dashed lines for SLy.

Figure 4 Spin symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{1,0}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{1,0})`$ as a function of the ratio of density to density at saturation ($`u=\rho /\rho _0`$) for interactions SLy, SkSC4, SkSC6 and SkSC10 with the same conventions of Figure 1.

Figure 5 Spin symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{1,0}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{1,0})`$ as a function of the ratio of density to density at saturation ($`u=\rho /\rho _0`$) for interactions SLy, SkSC4, SkSC6 and SkSC10 with the same conventions of Figure 2.

Figure 6 Spin symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{1,0}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{1,0})`$ as a function of the asymmetry coefficient b at different densities and for the different forces: with the same conventions of Figure 3.

Figure 7 Spin-isospin symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{1,1}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{1,1})`$ as a function of the ratio of density to density at saturation ($`u=\rho /\rho _0`$) for interactions SLy, SkSC4, SkSC6 and SkSC10 with the same conventions of Figure 1.

Figure 8 Spin-isospin symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{1,1}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{1,1})`$ as a function of the ratio of density to density at saturation ($`u=\rho /\rho _0`$) for the different interactions: with the same conventions of Figure 2.

Figure 9 Spin-isospin symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{1,1}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{1,1})`$ as a function of the asymmetry coefficient b at different densities and with the different forces: using the same conventions of Figure 3.

Figure 10 Scalar symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{0,0}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{0,0})`$ as a function of the ratio of density to density at saturation ($`u=\rho /\rho _0`$) for the different interactions with the conventions of Figure 1.

Figure 11 Scalar symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{0,0}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{0,0})`$ as a function of the ratio of density to density at saturation ($`u=\rho /\rho _0`$) for the different interactions: with the conventions of Figure 2.

Figure 12 Scalar symmetry energy coefficient $`A_{0,0}=\rho /(2\mathrm{\Pi }_R^{0,0})`$ as a function of the asymmetry coefficient $`b`$ at different densities and with the different forces, the conventions of Figure 3.


text:
# Extension of the full-folding optical model for nucleon-nucleus scattering with applications up to 1.5 GeV

## I Introduction

Elastic nucleon-nucleus (NA) scattering is known now as an excellent means of testing nuclear structure Amo00 . Results of the nonrelativistic theory for such scattering confidently can be used as predictive for information required in applied nuclear technology, where large amounts of nuclear reaction data –including fission cross sections at intermediate energies– are required for various challenging applications such as accelerator transmutation of waste, particularly the elimination of long-lived radioactive wastes with a spallation source, accelerator-based conversion to destroy weapon grade plutonium, accelerator-driven energy production to derive fission energy from thorium with concurrent destruction of the long-lived waste and without the production of nuclear weapon material, and accelerator production of tritium Kal96 . There is also a great need for such information to be the base in analyzes of patient radiation therapy and protection.

With basic science there is the intellectual challenge to go beyond the physics of a single hadron and understand essential aspects of nuclear physics from first principles such as QCD Rob00 . It is generally agreed that the QCD Lagrangian involves nonlinear dynamics. Such makes it very difficult then to understand nuclear physics fully from first principles, and so most of nuclear physics phenomena are interpreted in terms of appropriate effective degrees of freedom. One such view of natural phenomena in terms of energy scales ($`Q`$), divides the nuclear-hadronic scale into the nuclear structure region $`Q110`$ MeV and the nucleon and nucleon-nucleon (NN) region, with structure and substructure scales $`Q0.31`$ GeV. This large separation between the hadronic energy scale and the nuclear binding scale poses stringent difficulties to apply nonlinear QCD directly to understand the physics of nuclei. However, quantitative calculations based on effective quantum field theory (EQF) techniques that arise from chiral symmetry provide an alternative approach. At present, this method is being extended to address few- and many-nucleon interactions. When combined with first principle calculations of the low energy constants from QCD, these EQF may provide a consistent qualitative understanding of properties of nuclei and of low to medium energy nuclear scattering.

Besides understanding the structure of nuclei from a QCD point of view, it is of interest to understand the dynamical behavior of nucleons in the presence of nuclear matter. The relevance of modified NN scattering amplitudes in the form of $`g`$-matrices in the nuclear medium with mean fields and Pauli blocking is well known. These NN amplitudes and alternative reductions –in the form of $`t`$-matrices– have been used with qualitative success in the specification of nuclear densities in stable nuclei and the description of NA scattering for projectile energies ($`T_{Lab}`$) below 1 GeV. For $`T_{Lab}`$ above this limit we expect significant dynamical changes due to dibaryonic fusion with subsequent fission in the short range region of NN subsystems Fun01 .

Hitherto quite independently, several groups successfully described intermediate energy NA scattering using two nucleon $`t`$\- or $`g`$-matrices as driving effective interactions Ray92 . Among them we distinguish two main philosophies under which a description of NA collisions is made and which we specify as the nonrelativistic Schrödinger approach and as the relativistic Dirac approach Ray92 ; Amo00 . Common to both is the explicit use, and accurate treatment, of an interacting NN pair in the realm of other nucleons in a nucleus, and the need for an effective NN scattering amplitude known and defined on- and off-shell. For the more recent calculations of nonrelativistic NA optical potentials in momentum space Are90 ; Els90 ; Cre90 , a consistent treatment of the fully off-shell NN $`t`$\- or $`g`$-matrices have been used.

As nearly all available NN potentials Lac80 ; Sto93 ; Sto94 ; Wir95 ; Mac01  have been fitted to NN scattering data up to 350 MeV, a nonrelativistic treatment of the full-folding optical model suffices most NA scattering applications consistent with the input NN model. Recently, however, inversion potentials developed to fit elastic NN phase-shifts for $`T_{Lab}<1.2`$ GeV have been used within the full-folding approach for projectile energies as high as 500 MeV Are96 . Despite the fact that these were nonrelativistic applications, they allowed a better description of data relative to what was found previously using traditional NN potential models. The lack of relativistic kinematics as well as pion production and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ excitations within the NN pair did not manifest itself as a dramatic limitation of the model, even though the theoretical confidence level was reached. It is the primary aim of this work to remove these shortcomings and formulate a momentum space full-folding model using minimum-relativity. With the appropriate modifications to the existing analysis programs we expect to extend the confidence level into the GeV region and to obtain high quality full-folding optical model results at energies as high as 1.5 GeV.

Extensive studies of NA scattering in the context of relativistic Dirac models have been made Ray92 ; Mur87 ; Ott88 ; Tjo91 ; Coo93 . While these models are closer to a fundamental formulation with the inclusion of relativistic kinematics and dynamics within a single framework, to date they all have used fitted NN interactions that do not describe the phase shift data well. This is a serious drawback as it is well established that any folding model requires a high quality NN interaction as input.

The description of NA scattering requires only modest nuclear matter densities and thus the need of NN $`g`$-matrices is less demanding. Furthermore only for projectile energies below $`500`$ MeV are nuclear medium effects predominant with specific treatment of Pauli blocking and self consistent mean field effects being crucial. For medium and higher NN energies, meson production and intrinsic hadron excitations within the interacting pair are important. Consequently the $`t`$-matrix no longer is unitary in the elastic channel. However as the low energy $`t`$\- and $`g`$-matrices are well defined within potential scattering theory, we seek a continuation of NN potential models with an NN optical model potential (NNOMP). We have devised and generated NNOMP for $`0.3<T_{Lab}<3`$ GeV and applied them to NA elastic scattering. The calculations are based upon a relativistically corrected full-folding optical model in momentum space that is an extension of a nonrelativistic predecessor Are90 . Since the Lorentz contraction scales as the ratio of the projectile energy to its mass, it requires nucleon projectile energies above $`400`$ MeV to have sizeable contraction effects. It is safe to include relativistic kinematics in folding calculations when the projectile energy surpasses 300 MeV. Relativistic kinematics is widely used in pion-nucleus scattering Tho80 ; Wei82 ; Aar68 ; Ern80 ; Gie82 . An excellent discussion on some aspects about relativistic kinematics in NA scattering is given in the review by Ray, Hoffmann and Coker Ray92 .

One of the important advantages of finding a nonrelativistic NA optical model potential is its well defined structure in terms of interacting nucleon pairs. This framework has been remarkably successful in the study of low energy scattering with its link to the nuclear shell model of single particle bound states. The combination of target correlations and high quality NN interactions has provided a good first order description of the NA dynamics. This nonrelativistic theoretical approach has been applied with success for many energies and targets and now it is timely to incorporate relativistic corrections so that calculations can be made with energies as high as 1.5 GeV.

A brief summary of the current full-folding optical model is given in Section II and in which the points where relativistic kinematic corrections are to be made are stressed. The current experimental situation of NN phase shift analysis up to 3 GeV is discussed in Section III. We describe also how the NNOMP are determined by the NN phase shift data. In Section IV we set the framework of the $`g`$-matrix calculations and specify minimal relativity considerations. In Section V some details of the full-folding calculations and various applications are presented. We discuss the role of the Fermi motion in the NN effective interaction and analyze the sensitivity of NA scattering observables upon the use of alternative approaches for the relativistic kinematics. We also examine total cross sections for nucleon elastic scattering and differential observables at beam energies from the hundreds of MeV up into the GeV regime. Section VI contains a summary and the main conclusions of our study. Finally, we have included two Appendices. In Appendix A the relativistic kinematics transformations in the context of the full-folding approach are outlined as extracted from the articles by Aaron, Amado and Young Aar68  and by Giebink Gie82 . In Appendix B we present the algorithm we have used to determine the NNOMP from data.

## II Full-folding framework

In the nonrelativistic theory of the optical model potential, the coupling between the projectile and the target nucleus in the elastic channel is given by the convolution between a two-body effective interaction and the target ground-state mixed density. In the projectile-nucleus c.m. frame, the collision of a projectile of kinetic energy $`E`$ is described by the optical potential $`U(E)`$ which in a momentum space representation is expressed as Are90

$$U(𝐤^{},𝐤;E)=\underset{\alpha ϵ_F}{}𝑑𝐩^{}𝑑𝐩\varphi _\alpha ^{}(𝐩^{})𝐤^{}𝐩^{}|𝒯(\mathrm{\Omega }_\alpha )|𝐤𝐩_{A+1}\varphi _\alpha (𝐩)$$
(1)
where $`\varphi _\alpha `$ represents target ground state single-particle wave functions of energy $`ϵ_\alpha `$, and $`\alpha ϵ_F`$ restricts the sum to all levels up to the Fermi surface $`ϵ_F`$. The two-body $`𝒯`$ matrix is evaluated at starting energies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\alpha =m_p+E+m_t+ϵ_\alpha `$ consisting of the mass of the projectile $`m_p`$, its kinetic energy $`E`$, the mass of the target nucleon $`m_t`$ and its binding energy $`ϵ_\alpha `$. The subscript A+1 indicates matrix elements in the projectile-nucleus c.m. frame and recoil effects have been neglected for simplicity. In the most recent full-folding calculations of the optical potential for NA scattering, where explicit medium effects are incorporated in the two-body effective interaction, the $`𝒯`$-matrix is represented by an infinite nuclear matter $`g`$-matrix Are90 . In the absence of these medium modifications, the $`𝒯`$-matrix has usually been approximated by the two-body scattering matrix associated with the collisions of two free particles Are90 ; Els90 . None of these full-folding approaches incorporate the necessary relativistic kinematics needed for high energy processes.

The above expression for the optical potential requires the $`𝒯`$ matrix in the projectile-nucleus c.m. frame. However, most practical two-body potential models are designed to account for the scattering data in the two-body c.m., where a one-body wave equation (a Schrödinger kind equation) is used to construct the realistic two-body bare potential fit to elastic scattering and ground state data. The practical problem that emerges then is how to make use of this description to extract the needed effective interaction in the projectile-nucleus c.m. with an adequate account of relativistic effects. This has been a long standing problem in nuclear research and various approaches have been proposed and discussed elsewhere Tho80 ; Wei82 ; Aar68 ; Ern80 ; Gie82 . In the procedure followed here we retain the dynamical structure of the optical potential as expressed by Eq. (1) and identify, via a Lorentz boost, the corresponding kinematical variables involved in the two-body collision. Thus, the transformation of the $`𝒯`$ matrix from the two-body (2B) to the projectile-nucleus (A+1) c.m. frame can be done by considering three separate aspects. First, as Lorentz invariance of the flux is required, an overall normalization factor –usually referred as the Møller flux factor– mediates between the scattering amplitudes in the two frames. Second, the kinematics in the projectile-nucleus c.m. frame needs to be transformed to the two-body c.m. system, which is the reference frame where the bare potential model is defined. And third, the transformation of the scattering matrix from the two-body to the projectile-nucleus c.m. frames involves the rotation of the spins, an effect referred as the Wigner rotation. This contribution has been studied in the context of the relativistic ‘no-pair’ potential for nucleon-nucleus scattering by Tjon and Wallace Tjo91  and was observed to yield rather moderate effects at nucleon energies between 200 and 500 MeV. Although there is no statement about the importance of Wigner rotation contribution at the higher energies considered here, we shall neglect them in the present work.

Consistent with the notation introduced in Fig. 1 for the coupling between the projectile and the target struck nucleon, we denote their respective incoming and outgoing four-momenta

$`k`$ $`=`$ $`(\overline{\omega },𝐤),k^{}=(\overline{\omega }^{},𝐤^{});`$
$`p`$ $`=`$ $`(\overline{\epsilon },𝐩),p^{}=(\overline{\epsilon }^{},𝐩^{}).`$ (2)
When translational invariance is assumed, such is the case of free or particles in infinite nuclear matter, the two-body interaction is characterized by the starting energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and the total momentum of the colliding particles $`𝐐`$,

$$𝐤^{}𝐩^{}|𝒯(\mathrm{\Omega })|𝐤𝐩_{A+1}=\eta (𝐤^{}𝐩^{};𝐤𝐩)𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{},𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{}|\tau _𝐐(\sqrt{s})|𝐤_𝐫,𝐤_𝐫_{2B}\delta (𝐐^{}𝐐).$$
(3)
Here the Dirac delta-function makes explicit the total three-momentum conservation of the two-body collision, $`𝐐^{}=𝐐`$, where

$$𝐐=𝐤+𝐩,𝐐^{}=𝐤^{}+𝐩^{},$$
(4)
and $`\sqrt{s}`$ represents the energy in two-body c.m.,

$$s=\mathrm{\Omega }^2𝐐^2.$$
(5)
The overall coefficient $`\eta `$ is the Møller flux factor,

$$\eta (𝐤^{}𝐩^{};𝐤𝐩)=\left[\frac{\omega (𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{})\epsilon (𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{})\omega (𝐤_𝐫)\epsilon (𝐤_𝐫)}{\omega (𝐤^{})\epsilon (𝐩^{})\omega (𝐤)\epsilon (𝐩)}\right]^{1/2},$$
(6)
where the energies $`\omega `$ and $`\epsilon `$ are on-mass-shell, i.e. $`\omega ^2=m_p^2+𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$ and $`\epsilon ^2=m_t^2+𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$.

What remains to be specified is a Lorentz transformation for the relative momenta $`𝐤_𝐫`$ and $`𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$. To this purpose we followed the approaches introduced by Aaron, Amado and Young (AAY) Aar68  and Giebink Gie82 . Although, both assume a representation of the scattering matrix in the two-body c.m., they differ in the way the Lorentz boost is devised. Details are given in Appendix A where we show that in both cases the relative momenta can be cast into the form

$`𝐤_𝐫`$ $`=`$ $`W𝐤(1W)𝐩,`$
$`𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`W^{}𝐤^{}(1W^{})𝐩^{},`$ (7)
with $`W`$ and $`W^{}`$ being functions of the momenta of the colliding particles (Eqs. (26) or (33)). At low beam energies both prescriptions meet the nonrelativistic limit $`WW^{}m_p/(m_p+m_t)`$, as expected.

## III The NN optical model potential

Of the whole spectrum, low and medium energy NN scattering traditionally is described in terms of Hermitian potentials. At medium energies, production processes and inelasticities become possible and several elementary systems composed of nucleons and mesons contribute to NN scattering. At present there is no high quality description of NN scattering above the inelastic threshold either in terms of QCD or in terms of nucleons and mesons.

A high quality fit of on-shell $`t`$-matrices by means of a potential model is very desirable as it provides extensions of the effective interaction into the off-shell domain and into a nuclear medium, which are important dynamical features in few and many body calculations. Many examples using microscopic optical model potentials for elastic nucleon-nucleus scattering and bremsstrahlung reactions, have shown that it is crucial to have on-shell $`t`$-matrices in the best possible agreement with NN data at all energies. Concomitantly one needs high precision NN data against which one can specify NN interactions. To this purpose we have relied on a large body of experimental NN data whose parameterization in terms of amplitudes and phase shifts are smooth for energies to 3 GeV GWU00 . This is a supposition for the construction of an NN potential above 300 MeV.

There are many studies of few and many body problems in the low energy regime $`T_{Lab}<300`$ MeV and the results have consequences for any model extension above threshold. We note in this context that significant off-shell differences in $`t`$-matrices are known to exist among the theoretically well motivated boson exchange models of NN scattering. It remains difficult to attribute with certainty any particular dynamical or kinematical feature with those differences. Non-locality, explicit energy dependence and features associated with relativistic kinematics are some possibilities. In contrast, there is the quantum inverse scattering approach by which on-shell $`t`$-matrices can be continued into the off-shell domain. A specific method is the Gel’fand-Levitan-Marchenko inversion algorithm for Sturm-Liouville equations. This approach to specify $`t`$-matrices off-shell is appropriate when the physical S-matrix is unitary and the equation of motion is of the Sturm-Liouville type. Such is valid without modification for NN $`t`$-matrices in the energy regime below 300 MeV, and for the unitary part of the S-matrix above that energy.

In the spirit of general inverse problems, we have extended the available low energy potential by additional complex potential terms which are determined from a perfect reproduction of the experimental data (here the partial wave phase shift analysis) for all energies above 300 MeV. By that means NN optical models were generated, separately for each partial wave. The algorithm we have developed allows studies of complex local and/or separable potentials in combination with any background reference potential Ger98 ; Fun01 . Here we limit the reference potential to the well known real coordinate space potentials from Paris Lac80 , Nijmegen Sto94  (Reid93, Nijmegen-I, Nijmegen-II), Argonne Wir95  (AV18), and from inversion San97 . To them we add channel-dependent complex separable potentials with energy dependent strengths Fun01 . For a given input data set there is a unique NNOMP within a given potential class. Some of these issues are outlined in Appendix B.

NN scattering is a long standing problem which has been reviewed often as the database developed. The low energy data has been analyzed by the VPI/GWU group GWU00  for $`T_{Lab}400`$ MeV, the Nijmegen group with the NN phase shift results PWA93 for $`T_{Lab}350`$ MeV, and by Machleidt Mac01  giving the Bonn-CD-2000. Of these, the VPI/GWU group has given many solutions over the years, the latest are for energies to 3 GeV SAID . We have used the solutions SP00, FA00 and WI00 in our calculations and found results that differ but marginally. Thus hereafter in the main we refer solely to the results of calculations based upon SP00.

As with the NN phase shift analysis, one boson exchange potentials have received several critical reviews Mac01 , including observations that there are small variations between phase shift analysis and potential models below the subthreshold domain $`T_{Lab}<300`$ MeV. A theoretically stable result would require many quantities, that need be specified a priori, to be determined by independent sources. At present that does not seem feasible and all current potentials rely upon fits of many of their parameters to the same data. All such fits, however, have been made independently of each other and are based upon differing theoretical specifications of the boson exchange model dynamics.

Above 300 MeV, reaction channels open and the elastic channel S-matrix no longer is unitary. Only the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(1232) resonance has a low energy threshold and a relative small width of 120 MeV. Therefore it is the only resonance we expect to be obviously visible in the energy variation of the elastic scattering phase shifts. In particular one notices typical variations in the $`{}_{}{}^{1}D_{2}^{}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{3}F_{3}^{}`$, and $`{}_{}{}^{3}PF_2`$ channels. Otherwise the phase shifts to 3 GeV vary smoothly as functions of energy. Together with the strong spin-isospin coupling, this property infers optical potentials that are channel dependent in contrast to the NA case for which assumed central and spin-orbit potentials are partial wave independent. The plethora of reaction channels that open to 3 GeV, and the requirement of an NN optical potential prescription, mean that it is an interesting task for a microscopic model to link QCD substructures to NN scattering phase shift functions in analogy to that successful prescription by which NA optical potentials have been determined by folding effective interactions.

To describe this developing system for $`0.3<T_{Lab}<3`$ GeV we used Feshbach theory to specify the optical potential. An important feature of that theory is the projection operator formalism with $`P`$ and $`Q`$ subspaces, which divide the complete Hilbert space $`(P+Q)`$ into the elastic scattering channel, the $`P`$ space, and the inelastic and reaction channels, the $`Q`$ space. This infers a complex and separable component in the optical potential with an energy dependent strength. If a very large number of intermediate states contribute, the effect equates to a local potential operator.

A covariant description of NN scattering formally is given by the Bethe-Salpeter equation

$$=𝒱+𝒱𝒢,$$
(8)
where $``$ are invariant amplitudes that are based upon all connected two particle irreducible diagrams. This equation serves generally as an ansatz for approximations. Of those, the three dimensional Blankenbecler-Sugar reduction is popular and sufficient for our purpose to define an NN potential Mac01 . The amplitudes are now expressed with the reduced terms and they satisfy a three-dimensional equation

$$(𝐪^{},𝐪)=𝒱(𝐪^{},𝐪)+\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}𝒱(𝐪^{},𝐤)\frac{M^2}{E_𝐤}\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(1)}^+(𝐤)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(2)}^+(𝐤)}{𝐪^2𝐤^2+i\epsilon }(𝐤,𝐪).$$
(9)
Taking matrix elements with only positive energy spinors, an equation with minimum relativity results for the NN $`t`$-matrix, namely

$$𝒯(𝐪^{},𝐪)=𝒱(𝐪^{},𝐪)+\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}𝒱(𝐪^{},𝐤)\frac{M^2}{E_𝐤}\frac{1}{𝐪^2𝐤^2+i\epsilon }𝒯(𝐤,𝐪).$$
(10)
Using the substitutions

$$T(𝐪^{},𝐪)=\left(\frac{M}{E_𝐪^{}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}𝒯(𝐪^{},𝐪)\left(\frac{M}{E_𝐪}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}$$
(11)
and

$$V(𝐪^{},𝐪)=\left(\frac{M}{E_𝐪^{}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}𝒱(𝐪^{},𝐪)\left(\frac{M}{E_𝐪}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}},$$
(12)
a simplified form of the $`t`$-matrix is obtained. It is the familiar Lippmann-Schwinger equation

$$T(𝐪^{},𝐪)=V(𝐪^{},𝐪)+\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}V(𝐪^{},𝐤)\frac{M}{𝐪^2𝐤^2+i\epsilon }T(𝐤,𝐪).$$
(13)
The strategic importance of this result is that it defines a sensible continuation of a $`t`$-matrix, constrained on-shell by the experimental data and phase shift analysis, into the off-shell domain as required by the full-folding optical model. Thus we do not rely primarily on a fundamental theoretical result but rather on experimental NN data and the moderate sensitivity of NA scattering to alternative off-shell continuations. It is an important result also of this analysis that on-shell equivalent NN optical model potentials yield very similar NA scattering observables – irrespectively of differences in the off-shell domain and the constraint off-shell continuation defined with Eqs. (9-13).

## IV In–medium effective interaction

A crucial step in the description of NA scattering processes has been the definition of an effective interaction based on the bare two-body interaction in free space. Such has been the philosophy of the early (local) folding models and the most recent nonrelativistic full-folding models Are90 . The effective interaction, $`𝒯`$ in Eq. (1), is obtained in the framework of Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone for the $`g`$-matrix. The extension of this approach to high energy applications requires a minimal account of relativistic corrections. Along this line we have followed the discussion by Brockmann and Machleidt Bro90 , where a relativistic three-dimensional reduction of the Bethe-Salpeter equation is used to describe the interaction between nucleons in the nuclear medium. If only matrix elements between positive-energy spinors are taken, then the medium-modified invariant amplitude in an arbitrary frame reads (cf. Eqs. (A17, A18) in Ref. Bro90 )

$$𝒢_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐪;s)=𝒱_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐪)+\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}𝒱_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐤)\left(\frac{M}{E_{\frac{1}{2}𝐐+𝐤}}\right)\frac{M\overline{Q}(𝐐;𝐤)}{\frac{1}{4}s+\frac{1}{4}𝐐^2E_{\frac{1}{2}𝐐+𝐤}^2+i\epsilon }𝒢_𝐐(𝐤,𝐪;s).$$
(14)
Here the momentum $`𝐐`$ represents the momentum of the pair with respect to the background, and $`\overline{Q}`$ the Pauli blocking operator which projects onto unoccupied intermediate states. For the above expression angle averages have been used, i.e. $`|\frac{1}{2}𝐐+𝐤|^2\frac{1}{4}𝐐^2+𝐤^2`$, and the $`s`$ invariant has been defined as $`s=4E_{\frac{1}{2}𝐐+𝐪}^2𝐐^2`$. This approach, in the context of the Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation, has been applied with reasonable success to the study of infinite nuclear matter Bro90  as well as finite nuclei ground state properties Mut90 .

An appealing feature of the above equation for $`𝒢`$ is its direct connection with the bare NN potential model in free space. Indeed, adopting the same definitions as in Eqs. (11) and (12),

$$g_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐪;\sqrt{s})=\sqrt{\frac{M}{E_𝐪^{}}}𝒢_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐪;s)\sqrt{\frac{M}{E_𝐪}},$$
(15)
and

$$V(𝐪^{},𝐪)=\sqrt{\frac{M}{E_𝐪^{}}}𝒱(𝐪^{},𝐪)\sqrt{\frac{M}{E_𝐪}},$$
(16)
the following equation for the $`g`$-matrix is obtained

$$g_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐪;\sqrt{s})=V_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐪)+\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}V_𝐐(𝐪^{},𝐤)\left(\frac{E_𝐤}{E_{\frac{1}{2}𝐐+𝐤}}\right)\frac{M\overline{Q}(𝐐,𝐤)}{\frac{1}{4}s+\frac{1}{4}𝐐^2E_{\frac{1}{2}𝐐+𝐤}^2+i\epsilon }g_𝐐(𝐤,𝐪;\sqrt{s}).$$
(17)
The above Dirac-Brueckner approach differs in a non-trivial way from the conventional nonrelativistic Brueckner approach. The density dependence of the one-boson-exchange interaction by means of effective Dirac spinors and the explicit relativistic kinematics are features which have no counterpart in the traditional Brueckner approach. However, with the suppression of these relativistic dynamical effects we can extract a minimum of relativistic features needed in the nonrelativistic model. In our approach selfconsistency is demanded with the following choice for the quasi-particle spectrum,

$$E_𝐩^2=𝐩^2+\left(M+U(𝐩)\right)^2.$$
(18)
As in the usual Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone approach, the quasi-potential $`U(𝐩)`$ is obtained selfconsistently with the use of the continuous choice at the Fermi surface. As a first check, we consider the case of two nucleons interacting in free space, for which the Pauli blocking operator becomes the identity and the nuclear selfconsistent field vanishes. Furthermore, if the interaction is described in the pair c.m. ($`𝐐=0`$) then the $`g`$-matrix corresponds to the free scattering matrix $`T`$ as described by the BbS equation (cf. Eq. 13). This limit is immediately verified upon substitution of $`\sqrt{s}`$ by $`2\sqrt{q_{}^2+M^2}`$, with $`q_{}`$ the on-shell c.m. relative momentum. Thus,

$$T(𝐪^{},𝐪;\sqrt{s})=V(𝐪^{},𝐪)+\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}V(𝐪^{},𝐤)\frac{M}{q_{}^2k^2+i\epsilon }T(𝐤,𝐪;\sqrt{s}),$$
(19)
which is the nonrelativistic Lippmann-Schwinger equation with the pole at the relativistically correct momentum.

The other case of interest is infinite nuclear matter, where the relativistic structure of the quasi-particle spectrum introduced in Eq. (18) can be assessed considering the following power expansion in terms of $`U/M`$

$$E_𝐩^2/M2\left(\frac{𝐩^2}{2M}+U(𝐩)\right)+M(1+𝒪[(U/M)^2]).$$
(20)
If we substitute $`𝐩^2`$ by the angle averaged quantity $`\frac{1}{4}𝐐^2+𝐤^2`$ and proceed similarly with $`s`$, the similarity of the energy denominator in Eq. (17) with the one obtained using the nonrelativistic propagator is evident. An estimate of the accuracy of the above approximation at normal densities can be made considering $`(U/M)`$ 1/10. In such a case the above form of $`E^2`$ yields a propagator equivalent to its nonrelativistic counterpart with an accuracy better than 1%. This result supports the use of the nonrelativistic selfconsistent scheme to obtain the quasi-potentials.

With the above considerations, the calculation of the two-body effective interaction needed in the full-folding optical potential proceeds with the proper choice of the $`s`$-invariant in Eq. (17), and consistent with the starting energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\alpha `$ defined in Eq. (1). Since $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\alpha `$ represents the total pair energy of interacting nucleons with total momentum $`𝐐`$, the $`s`$-invariant is simply given by $`s=\mathrm{\Omega }_\alpha ^2𝐐^2`$.

## V Applications

A few remarks about the actual implementation of the computational procedures, aimed to obtain the full-folding optical potential $`U(E)`$, are worthy to note. First of all, we use the Slater approximation for the nuclear mixed density $`\varphi ^{}\varphi `$ in Eq. (1). This approximation has been discussed in the past Are90  and becomes particularly suitable for the present applications, where we rely on the same point nuclear densities for the target ground state. Furthermore, we make use of the infinite nuclear matter $`g`$-matrix to represent the effective interaction between the projectile and the target nucleon Are90 . As a result, the $`g`$-matrix evaluated at a Fermi momentum $`k_F`$ is folded with the target ground state density $`\rho `$ at a local momentum $`\widehat{k}(R)`$. The Slater approximation suggests the ansatz $`k_F=\widehat{k}`$, where the local momentum $`\widehat{k}`$ is determined from the density by $`\widehat{k}^3(R)=3\pi ^2\rho (R)/2`$. These considerations yield for the full-folding optical model potential

$$U(𝐤^{},𝐤;E)=4\pi 𝑑𝐑e^{i(𝐤^{}𝐤)𝐑}\left(\rho _p(𝐑)\overline{g}_{pN}(𝐤^{},𝐤)+\rho _n(𝐑)\overline{g}_{nN}(𝐤^{},𝐤)\right),$$
(21)
where $`\rho _p`$ and $`\rho _n`$ are the local proton and neutron point densities respectively, and $`\overline{g}_{NN}`$ represent the off-shell Fermi-averaged amplitudes in the NN channel. For a particular channel this amplitude depends on the nuclear matter density via $`k_F`$ (implicit in $`g`$), and the local momentum $`\widehat{k}`$ which sets the bounds for the Fermi motion of the target nucleons. This is expressed as

$$\overline{g}_{NN}(𝐤^{},𝐤)=\frac{3}{4\pi \widehat{k}^3}\mathrm{\Theta }(\widehat{k}|𝐏|)g_{𝐊+𝐏}(𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{},𝐤_𝐫;\sqrt{s})𝑑𝐏,$$
(22)
where $`𝐊=(𝐤+𝐤^{})/2`$ and the relative momentum $`𝐤_𝐫`$ and $`𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ are obtained following each of the two relativistic prescriptions discussed in Appendix A. We stress at this point that these amplitudes are calculated fully off-shell and that no assumption is made regarding the coordinate space structure of the $`g`$-matrix. With these considerations the full-folding optical potential becomes a genuine non-local operator. Its use in the Schrödinger equation involves integro-differential equations which are solved exactly within numerical accuracy.

The nuclear matter calculations for the $`g`$-matrix were done with fully self-consistent fields at various values of $`k_F`$. We have considered the inversion potentials based upon the sp00 phase-shifts solution with Nijmegen-I, -II and Reid-93 reference potentials (sp00-nij1, sp00-nij2 and sp00-re93 respectively), Argonne reference potential (sp00-av18), Paris reference potential (sp00-pari) and Gel’fand-Levitan-Marchenko inversion reference potential (sp00-invs).

### V.1 Medium and Fermi motion effects

To disclose some of the features exhibited by the Fermi-averaged effective interaction in the context of the full-folding approach, we analyze the $`\overline{g}`$ averages in the proton-proton ($`pp`$) and neutron-proton ($`np`$) channels. Here we focus on the on-shell forward matrix element. In this case the $`\overline{g}_{NN}`$ amplitude depends on the NA projectile momentum $`|𝐤|`$, the Fermi momentum $`k_F`$, and the local momentum $`\widehat{k}`$. In the case of the free $`t`$-matrix approach for the interaction we set $`k_F=0`$ but allow for the variation of $`𝐏`$ implied by the local nuclear density to account for the Fermi motion in the nucleus ($`|𝐏|\widehat{k}`$). In the case of a $`g`$-matrix element we set $`\widehat{k}=k_F`$. In Fig. 2 we show the real and imaginary components of $`\overline{g}_{pp}`$ and $`\overline{g}_{np}`$, based on the sp00-av18 NNOMP, as functions of the beam momentum and for the sequence $`\widehat{k}=0.6(0.2)1.4`$ fm<sup>-1</sup>. In each frame we draw the case $`\widehat{k}=0.6`$ fm<sup>-1</sup> with a thick solid curve; the following values of $`\widehat{k}`$ depart sequentially from this reference curve. The upper and lower frames correspond to $`g`$\- and $`t`$-matrix results respectively. To assess the role of the imaginary part of the NNOMP, the results based on the full model are shown in the four leftmost frames with solid curves while the results where the imaginary part is suppressed are shown in the four rightmost frames with dashed curves. The two relativistic kinematics prescriptions –Giebink and AAY– yield almost indistinguishable results for the amplitudes.

A comparison of results in the upper and lower frames indicates more dispersion due to the Fermi motion within the $`g`$-matrix than in the $`t`$-matrix approach. This is a feature which is more pronounced in the real than the absorptive component of the amplitude. This is a clear indication of the role of the self-consistent fields in the Fermi-averaged quantities. In the context of the full NNOMP however, the manifestation of this sensitivity becomes diminished at projectile energies above 500 MeV as the real component of all amplitudes for $`|𝐤|`$ above $``$5 fm<sup>-1</sup> are significantly smaller than their imaginary counterparts. Such is not the case at the lower energies, where both the real and imaginary components of the amplitude become comparable. Thus, we do expect more sensitivity under Fermi motion in the context of the $`g`$ matrix at projectile energies below 500 MeV.

Another feature that emerges from Fig. 2 is the sensitivity of the absorptive part of $`\overline{g}`$ to the presence of the imaginary part of the NNOMP. Indeed, when this part is suppressed, the absorptive component of the amplitude saturates above $``$5 fm<sup>-1</sup>, in contrast with the full NNOMP where the trend of this absorption is to increase. The manifestation of this feature becomes clear when the Fermi average enters fully off-shell in the evaluation of the full-folding potential, as discussed in the following section.

### V.2 Total cross sections

A global assessment of the full-folding model to the inclusion of relativistic kinematics and features of the underlying NN potential model over a wide energy range is made first by studying total cross sections for neutron-nucleus elastic scattering. In Fig. 3 we show the measured Fin93  and calculated total cross sections for neutron elastic scattering from <sup>16</sup>O, <sup>40</sup>Ca, <sup>90</sup>Zr and <sup>208</sup>Pb at beam energies ranging from 100 MeV up to 1 GeV. These cross sections are obtained by solving the scattering equations using full-folding optical potentials calculated as in Ref. Are90 , modified to include the kinematics discussed in this work. For completeness in this comparison we have considered the full NNOMP within the $`g`$\- (solid curves) and $`t`$-matrix (dashed curves) approaches. In order to assess the role of the absorptive contribution of the NNOMP, we have also included results suppressing the imaginary part. These results are shown unmarked, whereas those using the full NNOMP have been labeled with a triangle at their right end. The data are represented with open circles. From this figure we observe a remarkable agreement between the full NNOMP $`g`$-matrix results and the data, particularly at energies above $``$200 MeV. Such is not the case for the $`t`$-matrix approach, or when the imaginary part of the bare NN potential is suppressed. In the former case the lack of nuclear medium effects becomes pronounced for projectile energies as high as 500 MeV in the case of Pb, but less for lighter nuclei. Conversely, the imaginary part of the NNOMP is crucial for the adequate description of cross section data at beam energies above 400 MeV, as observed when comparing the labeled and unlabeled curves.

Total reaction cross sections for proton-nucleus elastic scattering at high energies are of increasing interest, particularly with current trends using spallation facilities with high energy beams. Thus, we calculated total reaction cross-section for elastic proton scattering, at beam energies up to 1.5 GeV, and compare them with available data Car96 . In strict analogy with the previous applications, and use of notations as in Fig. 3, in Fig. 4 we show $`g`$\- (solid curves) and $`t`$-matrix (dashed curves) results wich used the full or suppressed the imaginary part of the NNOMP. Here again we have marked with triangular labels those results based on the full NNOMP, and left unmarked the ones with the imaginary part suppressed. The data are represented by open circles. The results shown in Fig. 4 used the sp00-av18 NNOMP. For this particular observable and energies of our study, we find very similar results among all the NNOMP i.e. irrespectively of the reference potential. Again we find little differences between the $`g`$\- and $`t`$-matrix approaches above $``$500 MeV. Thus, medium effects in the interaction are rather weak (albeit not neglegible) at these higher energies. Such is not the case below 400 MeV, particularly in the case of Pb, where a clear departure of the $`t`$-matrix with respect to the $`g`$-matrix results is observed. However, these differences are smaller than the ones due to the presence of the imaginary part of the NNOMP. In fact, we can see clear differences within the $`g`$-matrix approach by including and suppressing the imaginary part of the NNOMP at energies above 500 MeV. Since reaction cross section data are scarce above 700 MeV (only two data points for all four targets), the curves (marked with triangles) constitute a high energy prediction of our work.

Another feature observed from Figs. 3 and 4 is the trend of all cross sections to reach a plateau above 650 MeV. We have scrutinized more closely this feature and find that both $`\sigma _T`$ and $`\sigma _R`$ exhibit an almost linear dependence with $`A^{2/3}`$, with target masses 16$`A`$208. To illustrate this point we show in Fig. 5 the calculated $`\sigma _T`$ and $`\sigma _R`$ as function of $`A^{2/3}`$. The solid curves represent results from $`g`$-matrix full-folding results, based on the SP00-AV18 full NNOMP, at various energies; the dotted curves represent the corresponding results without the imaginary part of the NNOMP. The dashed curves serve as reference and correspond to the parametric forms $`\sigma _R=(0.19+0.10A^{2/3})`$ and $`\sigma _T=(0.03+0.052A^{2/3})`$ in barn units. Notice, only the full NNOMP results feature a moderate deviation from the parametric forms shown, which is not the case in calculations where the imaginary part of the NNOMP was suppressed (dotted curves). Thus, the absorptive part of the NNOMP inhibits the energy dependence of the total cross sections above 700 MeV.

### V.3 Differential cross sections

Differential cross sections and spin observables for elastic scattering remain a challenge for any microscopic theory. An assessment of alternative relativistic kinematics is made with a comparison of these observables using Giebink and AAY relativistic approaches. These results are illustrated in Fig. 6, where the differential cross section $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{\Omega }`$, analyzing powers $`A_y`$ and spin rotation functions $`Q`$ for p+<sup>40</sup>Ca elastic scattering at 1.04 GeV are shown as function of momentum transfer $`q`$. We have used $`g`$-matrices together with Giebink (solid curves) and AAY (dashed curves) kinematics. This figure shows the case where the differences should be most pronounced. Indeed, all the other cases show nearly complete overlap between the two cases. Nevertheless, Fig. 6 shows that the two prescriptions yield similar results for all observables. Some differences can be seen in $`A_y`$, at momentum transfers above 1.5 fm<sup>-1</sup>, where the AAY lie slightly above the Giebink kinematics results. We selected for all further calculations the Giebink kinematics.

Next, we study six NNOMP in NA elastic scattering at various energies with the full-folding model using the $`g`$-matrix approach. We have chosen scattering of protons from <sup>40</sup>Ca and <sup>208</sup>Pb for which there is a large body of high precision data over a wide energy range data . The applications used the full NNOMP with reference to sp00-nij1, -nij2, -pari, -av18, -re93 and -invs solutions. As in most cases the differences among these reference NN potentials are moderate, we have chosen all curves with a single pattern. This also helps to illustrate the level of sensitivity of NA scattering upon on-shell equivalent potentials with different off-shell behavior.

Considering that the results presented here correspond to parameter free calculations, the overall description of all elastic scattering data is remarkably good. Only a close examination of the results shows the limitations of our approach. In Fig. 7 for p+<sup>40</sup>Ca scattering at 300, 400 and 497.5 MeV, for instance, we observe a very good agreement between the full-folding model results for all observables and momentum transfers above $``$1 fm<sup>-1</sup>. However, some discrepancies remain in the description of low momentum transfer data. In Fig. 8 are shown p+<sup>40</sup>Ca results for energies between 650 and 1040 MeV. We observe two curves slightly separated from the rest. Such curves correspond to the sp00-av18 and sp00-pari NNOMP, affecting mainly the differential cross section and analyzing powers at 800 and 1040 MeV. The possible cause of this feature, and the fact that this is more pronounced in the case of Ca than in Pb is not fully understood but numerical reasons cannot be ruled out. A similar trend is observed in Fig. 9 for p+<sup>208</sup>Pb scattering. These limitations have already been noticed in previous nonrelativistic full-folding calculations. Thus, the identification of a unique missing element in the approaches, to account for the low $`q`$ failures remains an open issue. Some possibilties have been discussed elsewhere Ray92 .

In Figs. 9 and 10 we show results for p+<sup>208</sup>Pb scattering at energies between 300 MeV and 1 GeV. With the exception of the 400 and 497.5 MeV cases, the cross section is very well described by our calculations. With respect to the spin observables, there is a tendency to lose structure relative to the measured values at energies above 650 MeV.

### V.4 Approximations

The calculation of optical potentials, within the full-folding approach used herein, are made without refuge in assumptions either about the local structure of the NN effective interaction or about the final structure of the NA coupling. In fact, these potentials are treated as non-local operators and are the result of a detailed account of the NN effective interaction off-shell. In contrast, the optical potentials in the nonrelativistic impulse approximation, discussed in Ref. Ray92 , are assumed local and constructed with only on-shell $`t`$-matrix elements as effective interaction. Important differences have been observed between these two approaches when applied to intermediate energy (200-400 MeV) NA scattering. An illustration of these differences is made in Fig. 11 for 800 MeV p+<sup>208</sup>Pb elastic scattering, where the differential cross section, analyzing powers and spin rotations are shown as function of the momentum transfer. The $`g`$-matrix full-folding results are represented with solid curves. The $`t`$-matrix full-folding results are represented with long-dashed curves, whereas short-dashed and dotted curves are used to represent the results of the off-shell $`t\rho `$ and on-shell $`t\rho `$ results respectively. Clear differences can be seen between the $`g`$\- and $`t`$-matrix results, particularly for the spin observables. These are pronounced for $`q`$ 1.5 fm<sup>-1</sup> which illustrates the level of sensitivity to medium effects at these momentum transfers and for this particular case. Within the same $`t`$-matrix approach however, the full-folding results are similar to those obtained within the $`t\rho `$ approximation. The extent of these sensitivities is comparable to contributions from short range correlations Ray92 .

The full-folding calculations presented here are first of their kind to be tested at energies as high as $``$1.5 GeV. Differences are observed between these and previous results, particularly in the 800 MeV applications at forward angles Ray92 . Apart from the locality issue in the NA coupling and the treatment of the NN effective interaction off-shell, additional effects have been included in those local potential calculations and which may cause variations between the results. Particularly relevant seem to be the short range correlations and electromagnetic spin-orbit contributions to the NA coupling. A careful assessment of these effects in the context of the full-folding approach is needed. Considering that calculations in the $`t\rho `$ scheme are much simpler than those in the full-folding approach, the former becomes quite suitable for exploratory purposes. Quantitative comparisons, however, do require the inclusion of medium effects within the full-folding approach.

## VI Summary and conclusions

The nonrelativistic full-folding optical model approach for NA scattering has been extented into the relativistic regime. Kinematical issues involving the off-shell Lorentz boost of the colliding particles between the NN and the NA c.m. reference frames have been addressed. Also, explicit nuclear medium effects have been incorporated with the use of microscopic NN effective interaction as obtained in the framework of nuclear matter $`g`$-matrix using an NNOMP which fully accounts for the inelasticities and isobar resonances at nucleon energies as high as $``$3 GeV. The nuclear matter $`g`$-matrices were obtained considering both Pauli blocking and selfconsistent nuclear fields as in the traditional Brueckner theory. Minimal relativity corrections were extracted from the Brockmann and Machleidt approach to relativistic nuclear matter. Effects arising from Wigner rotations and electromagnetic spin-orbit corrections were not included.

The study considered both $`t`$-matrix and in-medium self-consistent $`g`$-matrix approaches. With the inclusion of relativistic kinematics corrections, in conjunction with a realistic description of NN resonances and inelasticities by means of an NNOMP, we obtain a good description of both the total and the differential scattering observables for NA elastic scattering. The results exhibit a weak sensitivity to the choice of the relativistic approach –AAY or Giebink– to correct the kinematics. We also observe that medium effects are significant over the whole energy range of our study, although they are rather weak above 400 MeV. In contrast, the inelasticities of the NN interaction become important above 400 MeV as was observed particularly in the description of the total cross sections.

Although our study allows a reasonable description of the differential observables at energies as high as 1 GeV in NA scattering, specific details remain to be explained; notably the low $`q`$ behavior of the spin observables in the 400-500 MeV range. As our primary effort has been to provide a parameter free nonrelativistic framework for the study of NA elastic scattering with a minimal account of relativistic effects at these high energies, a systematic study of various other effects has not been pursued in order to keep our discussion focused. However, future work will scrutinize the systematics of the calculated observables under the use of alternative densities, mixed density representations, electromagnetic effects and higher order correlations. Off-shell effects arising from the non-locality range of the separable description of the NNOMP above pion threshold also require further investigation. Nevertheless, the level of agreement we have achieved, within the nonrelativistic approach, is comparable to what has been obtained within relativistic approaches.

The study presented is limited in its value as we have not used a covariant two-body and (A+1)-body dynamics. The approach adopted is a practical one and is largely motivated and justified by the good agreement of the numerical results with data. Thus we claim, that use of minimal relativity in conjuction with NN optical model interactions, which fully account for the inelasticities and isobar resonances above the pion threshold, yield quantiative descriptions of NA scattering up to energies of 1.5 GeV.

## Appendix A Relativistic kinematics

We have used two prescriptions for the relativistic kinematics involved in the transformation of the two-body colliding momenta between the pair c.m. and the projectile-nucleus c.m. These schemes have been developed by Giebink Gie82  and by Aaron et al. Aar68 . The latter has also been obtained by imposing time reversal invariance on the scattering amplitude Ern80 .

Following Giebink in the context of a manifestly Lorentz invariant two-body transition amplitude, let $`k=(\overline{\omega },𝐤)`$ and $`p=(\overline{\epsilon },𝐩)`$ be the projectile and struck-nucleon four-momenta in the projectile-nucleus c.m. The corresponding momenta in the exit channel are represented with $`k^{}`$ and $`p^{}`$. In Giebink’s approach the total four-momentum is conserved,

$$k+p=k^{}+p^{}Q,$$
(23)
which, to be valid, requires each particle to be off mass-shell. The relative momenta in the two-body c.m. is readily obtained by applying a Lorentz transformation to momenta with a single boost $`\beta `$. This boost is obtained from the invariant

$$(\overline{\omega }+\overline{\epsilon })^2(𝐤+𝐩)^2=S,$$
(24)
and from

$$\beta =\frac{𝐤+𝐩}{\overline{\omega }+\overline{\epsilon }}=\frac{𝐤^{}+𝐩^{}}{\overline{\omega }^{}+\overline{\epsilon }^{}}.$$
(25)
With this velocity, a direct calculation yields for the incident ($`𝐤_𝐫`$) and outgoing ($`𝐤_𝐫^{}`$) relative momenta

$$𝐤_𝐫=\frac{\left(\overline{\epsilon }+\epsilon _r\right)𝐤\left(\overline{\omega }+\omega _r\right)𝐩}{\overline{\epsilon }+\epsilon _r+\overline{\omega }+\omega _r},𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{}=\frac{\left(\overline{\epsilon }^{}+\epsilon _r^{}\right)𝐤^{}\left(\overline{\omega }^{}+\omega _r^{}\right)𝐩^{}}{\overline{\epsilon }^{}+\epsilon _r^{}+\overline{\omega }^{}+\omega _r^{}}.$$
(26)
In these expressions the subscript ‘r’ denotes the on mass-shell relative energy

$$\omega _r=\sqrt{m_p^2+𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}},\epsilon _r=\sqrt{m_t^2+𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}},$$
(27)
where $`m_p`$ and $`m_t`$ represent the masses of the projectile and struck-nucleon respectively. In all the above expressions the magnitude of the relative momentum $`𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$ is needed. It can be shown that

$$𝐤_{𝐫}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=\frac{1}{4S}\xi ^2(S,k^2,p^2),$$
(28)
where the $`\xi `$-function is defined as

$$\xi (x,y,z)=\sqrt{(xyz)^24yz}.$$
(29)
Notice that the $`\xi `$-function in Eq. (28) is evaluated at the off-mass-shell invariants $`k^2=\overline{\omega }^2𝐤^2`$ and $`p^2=\overline{\epsilon }^2𝐩^2`$. The actual implementation of Giebink’s procedure faces the difficulty of improper Lorentz transformations which occur when $`S`$ in Eq. (24) becomes negative; this happens for very large momenta $`𝐤+𝐩`$. However, as the bound-state wavefunctions of the struck nucleons confine the momentum distribution of $`𝐩`$ to magnitudes below $``$2 fm<sup>-1</sup>, such improper contributions occur for very large $`𝐤`$ and $`𝐤^{}`$, affecting only far off-shell matrix elements in $`U(𝐤^{},𝐤)`$. A way to circumvent this difficulty is to restrict $`S`$ in Eq. (24) near on-mass-shell. Thus, we approximate

$$Sm_p^2+m_t^2+2\overline{\omega }\overline{\epsilon }2𝐤𝐩.$$
(30)
Averaging the Fermi motion of the target nucleons ($`𝐩`$) allows the simplification

$$SS_{}=m_p^2+m_t^2+2\overline{\omega }\overline{\epsilon }.$$
(31)
Consistent with the above, the following forms are obtained for the relative energies

$$\omega _r=\frac{\overline{\omega }\overline{\epsilon }+m_t^2}{\sqrt{S_{}}},\text{and}\epsilon _r=\frac{\overline{\omega }\overline{\epsilon }+m_p^2}{\sqrt{S_{}}}.$$
(32)
Clearly $`\sqrt{S_{}}=\omega _r+\epsilon _r`$, which is a handy result for the energy denominators in Eq. (26). The full-folding calculations following Giebink relativistic kinematics were made using $`\overline{\epsilon }=\overline{\epsilon }^{}=M`$ and $`\overline{\omega }=\overline{\omega }^{}=M+E_{lab}`$, with $`M`$ the nucleon mass.

In the relativistic prescription developed by Aaron and collaborators Aar68 , the relative momenta for the incoming and outgoing channels require different boost velocities. In each channel the particles are set on-mass-shell and the corresponding boost is represented by Eq. (25). The resulting relative momentum exhibits the same structure as the one given by Eq. (26) but with the substitution $`\overline{\omega }\omega (𝐤)`$ and $`\overline{\epsilon }\epsilon (𝐩)`$. A direct calculation yields for the magnitude

$$𝐤_r^2=\frac{1}{4s_{in}}\xi ^2(s_{in},m_p^2,m_t^2),$$
(33)
where

$$s_{in}=(\epsilon (𝐩)+\omega (𝐤))^2(𝐩+𝐤)^2.$$
(34)
An analogous result is obtained for the outgoing channel.

## Appendix B Algorithm to determine the NNOMP from data

Consider that there are three distinct Hamiltonians Fun01 . They are the reference Hamiltonian $`H_0`$, a projected Hamiltonian $`H_{PP}`$, and a full optical model Hamiltonian $``$. The first of these, the reference Hamiltonian $`H_0:=T+V_0`$, invokes a given potential $`V_0`$ for which one can find Schrödinger equation reference solutions. The physical outgoing solutions $`\psi _0:=\psi _0^+(𝐫,𝐤,E)`$ of $`H_0`$ we suppose yields a unitary S-matrix. We assume further that this Hamiltonian is completely specified such that evaluation of any quantity, wave function, S-matrix, K-matrix etc. is facilitated. The Feshbach projection operator formalism gives the projected Hamiltonian, $`PH_0P=H_{PP}`$. We presuppose completeness, $`P+Q=1`$, and a finite rank representation of the Q space

$$Q:=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}|\mathrm{\Phi }_i><\mathrm{\Phi }_i|=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}|i><i|,$$
(35)
with the Q space basis functions $`|\mathrm{\Phi }_i>`$ interpreted as doorway states. With these doorway states we make the link between the QCD and the hadronic sectors; the latter encompassing nucleons, mesons and other free particles. Thus we assume that meson creation/annihilation occurs only in the highly nonlinear QCD sector so that Q space wave functions are projections of such processes onto hadronic particle coordinates. The third of our Hamiltonians, the full optical model Hamiltonian, comprises the reference Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ and the proper optical model potential $`𝒱`$. That potential is complex and nonlocal, and taken to be separable of finite rank, $`:=T+V_0+𝒱(r,r^{};lsj,E)`$.

The Schrödinger equation specified with $``$ has regular physical solutions $`\mathrm{\Psi }^+:=\mathrm{\Psi }^+(𝐫,𝐤,E)`$ whose asymptotic boundary conditions we deem to match with the experimental elastic channel S-matrix. Specifically, for these experimental S-matrices we have used the continuous solutions SP00 from VPI/GWU SAID . The reference potential $`V_0`$ and separable potential form factors are still to be specified in detail with the application.

To obtain the optical potential on the basis of a given reference potential, we express first the solutions of the projected Hamiltonian in terms of the reference Hamiltonian and the a priori defined Q space projector. The Lippmann–Schwinger equation,

$$|\psi _P>=|\psi _0>\underset{j}{}G_0^+|j><j|H_{QP}|\psi _P>,$$
(36)
is still very general and does not depend upon a specific representation. However, in the following we assume a partial wave expansion and the following equations are identified as radial equations with the set of quantum numbers suppressed.

As projector orthogonality $`PQ=QP=0`$ implies that

$$<j|H_{QP}|\psi _P>=\underset{i}{\overset{N}{}}\{<\mathrm{\Phi }|G_0^+|\mathrm{\Phi }>\}_{ji}^1<i|\psi _0>,$$
(37)
the solutions of Eq. (36) can be written in terms of $`|\psi _0>`$ as

$$|\psi _P>=|\psi _0>\underset{ij}{\overset{N}{}}G_0^+|i>\{<\mathrm{\Phi }|G_0^+|\mathrm{\Phi }>\}_{ij}^1<j|\psi _0>=|\psi _0>\underset{ij}{\overset{N}{}}G_0^+\mathrm{\Lambda }_{ij}|\psi _0>,$$
(38)
wherein one can identify a separable potential

$$|i>\{<\mathrm{\Phi }|G_0^+|\mathrm{\Phi }>\}_{ij}^1<j|=|i>\lambda _{ij}<j|=:\mathrm{\Lambda }_{ij}(r,r^{}).$$
(39)
Note then that definition of Q space gives a specification of the separable strengths $`\lambda _{ij}(lsj,E)`$ that is unique. The resultant Eq. (38) has the form of a first order Born approximation but in fact it is an exact result.

To proceed, initially we abandon the exactitude of Eq. (38) and require the strength matrix,

$$\lambda _{ij}=\{<\mathrm{\Phi }|G_0^+|\mathrm{\Phi }>\}_{ij}^1,$$
(40)
to be constrained asymptotically by the experimental S-matrix of the full Hamiltonian Schrödinger equation, i.e. asymptotically we induce $`|\psi _P>=|\mathrm{\Psi }_{}>`$. This implies that complex optical model strengths $`\lambda _{ij}`$ emerge as a result of matching to Riccati-Hankel functions and non unitary S-matrices with

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_{}>=|\psi _P>\frac{1}{2i}\left(h^{}(rk)+h^+(rk)S(k)\right).$$
(41)
The strengths $`\lambda _{ij}`$ then can be simply determined from the linear system of equations

$$\frac{1}{2i}h^+(Rk)\left(S(k)S_0(k)\right)=\underset{ij}{}G_0^+|i>\lambda _{ij}<j|\psi _0^+>.$$
(42)
To reinforce a Lippmann–Schwinger equation, with the experimental S-matrix as boundary condition or equivalently with strengths $`\lambda _{ij}`$ from Eq. (42), a transformation of the separable potential Eq. (39) is made. This is achieved with

$$𝒱(r,r^{}):=\mathrm{\Lambda }\frac{1}{(1G_0^+\mathrm{\Lambda })},$$
(43)
which contains the separable potentials as defined with Eq. (39) but whose strengths now are solutions of Eq. (42). As the transformation Eq. (43) contains integration of orthonormal functions, only strengths are altered. Using this optical model in the full Hamiltonian, physical solutions are obtained with reference solutions $`|\psi _0>`$ and Greens function $`G_0^+`$ of the reference Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ by means of the Lippmann–Schwinger equation

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_{}>=|\psi _0>+G_0^+𝒱|\mathrm{\Psi }_{}>.$$
(44)
###### Acknowledgements.

H. F. A acknowledges partial support from FONDECYT under grant 1970508. The authors thank Profs. B. C. Clark and L. Ray for making available much of the differential scattering data presented in this work.