Coulomb effects in low energy proton-proton scattering

Using a recently developed effective field theory for the interactions of nucleons at non-relativistic energies, we calculate non-perturbatively Coulomb corrections to proton-proton scattering. Including the dimension-eight derivative interaction in the PDS regularization scheme, we recover a modified form of the Blatt-Jackson relation between the scattering lengths. The effective range receives no corrections from the Coulomb interactions to this order. Also the case of scattering in channels where the Coulomb force is attractive, is considered. This is of importance for hadronic atoms. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.