Off-energy-shell p-p scattering at sub-Coulomb energies via the Trojan horse method

Two-proton scattering at sub-Coulomb energies has been measured indirectly via the Trojan horse method applied to the p + d -> p + p + n reaction to investigate off-energy shell effects for scattering processes. The three-body experiment was performed at 5 and 4.7 MeV corresponding to a p-p relative energy ranging from 80 to 670 keV. The free p-p cross section exhibits a deep minimum right within this relative energy region due to Coulomb plus nuclear destructive interference. No minimum occurs instead in the Trojan horse p-p cross section, which was extracted by employing a simple plane-wave impulse approximation. A detailed formalism was developed to build up the expression of the theoretical half-off-shell p-p cross section. Its behavior agrees with the Trojan horse data and in turn formally fits the n-n, n-p, and nuclear p-p cross sections given the fact that in its expression the Coulomb amplitude is negligible with respect to the nuclear one. These results confirm the Trojan horse suppression of the Coulomb amplitude for scattering due to the off-shell character of the process.