A theory of the optical potential for scattering of nucleons from nuclei is presented. A development appropriate for intermediate- and high-energy scattering is given in this paper. For low energies the theory provides the leading term of the optical potential which must then be supplemented by the effects of compound-nucleus formation and inelastic scattering to low-lying states of the target. Particular attention is paid to the Pauli principle, and it is shown how standard multiple-scattering theories must be modified if the projectile is identical to the target particles. The development proceeds in the spirit of the many-body theory of finite nuclei, but deals with the problem of the addition of a (continuum) nucleon to an already known strongly correlated nuclear state. The manner in which the correlations between target and projectile nucleons develop is explicitly displayed. It is the consideration of these additional two-body correlations which allows us to introduce the Bethe-Goldstone type of reaction matrices for the scattering problem.

• Received 9 August 1972

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.7.494