Coulomb-nuclear interference in elastic proton scattering in the eikonal approach

Abstract

We find exact solution in the Cahn eikonal model, which describes Coulomb-nuclear interference in elastic scattering of charged hadrons. The cases of both point-like and extended particles equipped with electromagnetic form factors are considered. According to the solution obtained the Coulomb-nuclear contributions are not exponentiated and cannot be added to the Coulomb phase. At the same time, the $O(\alpha )$-approximation of the amplitude is ambiguous, which makes it unsuitable for data processing.

Comments: v2: significantly reduced text; v3: added discussion of ambiguity of $O(\alpha )$-approximation of amplitude, 12 pages