Delbruck and nuclear effects in photon scattering: Recent developments

Delbruck scattering, which is the elastic scattering of a photon in a Coulo mb field, is of interest both as an observable high-order non-linear proces s in quantum electrodynamics and as an interfering process in studies of nu clear structure. This process has been extensively investigated in the past from theoretical and computational points of view, In this paper, attentio n is mainly focused on the theoretical features and, in particular, the dis persion relation approach and a critical review of the numerical evaluation s of the first-order Born approximation cross-section is presented. Applica tions and limits of these results are discussed in comparison with experime ntal data on elastic photon scattering by medium-and heavy-mass nuclei and theoretical models of nuclear structure. Copyright (C) 1999 John Whey & Son s, Ltd.