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

The nonrelativistic full-folding optical model approach for nucleon-nucleus scattering is extended into the relativistic regime. In doing so, kinematical issues involving the off-shell Lorentz boost of the colliding particles between the two nucleons and the projectile-nucleus center-of-mass reference frames have been taken into account. The two-body effective interaction is obtained in the framework of the nuclear matter g matrix using nucleon-nucleon optical model potentials that fully account for the inelasticities and isobar resonances in the continuum at nucleon energies up to 3 GeV. Diverse nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential models were constructed by supplementing the basic Paris, Nijmegen, Argonne, or Gel'fand-Levitan-Marchenko inversion potentials with complex separable terms. In each case the additional separable terms ensured that the combination led to NN scattering phase shifts in excellent agreement with experimental values. With each phase shift fitting potential nuclear matter g matrices have been formed and with each of those relativistic full-folding optical potentials for nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering determined. Application to such scattering for projectile energies up to 1.5 GeV have been made. Good and systematic agreement is obtained between the calculated and measured observables, both differential and integrated quantities, over the whole energy range of our study. A moderate sensitivity to off-shell effects in the differential scattering observables also is observed.