REACTION CROSS-SECTIONS OF INTERMEDIATE-ENERGY ALPHA-PARTICLES WITHINA RELATIVISTIC OPTICAL-MODEL

The suggestion made recently by H. Abele et al. that relativistic effe cts in the interaction of alpha particles with various nuclei at inter mediate energies may remove the existing discrepancy between the theor etical predictions and the experimental data for the reaction cross se ction is investigated. We use a relativistic model based on the Kemmer -Duffin-Petiau equation and find that relativistic effects do not lead to a reduction in the reaction cross section within the present appro ach. Alternative explanations are discussed.