Nucleon-Nucleon elastic and inelastic scattering using quantum field theory: a comparative study

Raghad Al-Bakri, Bassam Shehadeh

Published 2023-05-23Version 1

In this paper, we use Yukawa theory to calculate differential and total cross-sections for elastic and inelastic scattering in nucleon-nucleon interactions. We start from the fundamental Lagrangian and derive the $T$-matrix and hence the invariant scattering matrix leading towards the differential and total cross section. We perform calculations utilizing two types of Yukawa interaction terms: 1) scalar current, and 2) pseudoscalar current. We also carry out calculations in a laboratory frame. Calculated results using scalar current exhibits the exact features of elastic and inelastic scattering. The results agree very well with the differential cross-sections for experimental data. The pseudoscalar current calculations do not offer reasonable results and features of the NN interactions. The simplicity of the theory makes it all the more impressive, thus it can be used in place of more complicated field theories to describe NN interactions.