The Resurrection of a Symmetry in Nucleon - Nucleus Scattering

Abstract

We re-examine a symmetry in nucleon - nucleus scattering that previously had been proclaimed to be dead. We show that this symmetry is the continuum analog of pseudospin symmetry, a relativistic symmetry which manifests itself in the spectra of nuclei. Using experimental data only we show that pseudospin symmetry in nucleon - nucleus scattering is not dead but only modestly broken for 800 MeV proton scattering on nuclei.

Comments: Thirteen pages including three figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letters