OPTICAL NUCLEON-DEUTERON POTENTIAL

Nucleon-deuteron scattering is cast into the form of an optical potent ial formalism. Two forms of an optical potential are given. The result ing integral equations for the optical potentials are approximated by the first two leading terms. Our numerical results demonstrate that ev en at intermediate energies these approximations are insufficient to c over all of the angular range. Rescattering terms of higher order in t he nucleon-nucleon (NN) t matrix are needed. If one focuses on forward scattering, low-order approximations in the NN t matrix can be suffic ient, depending on energy, and observable.