Background: Elastic scattering is probably the main event in the interactions of nucleons with nuclei. Even if this process has been extensively studied over the last years, a consistent description, i.e., starting from microscopic two- and many-body forces connected by the same symmetries and principles, is still under development.

Purpose: In this work we study the domain of applicability of microscopic two-body chiral potentials in the construction of an optical potential.

Methods: We basically follow the Kerman, McManus, and Thaler approach [Ann. Phys. (NY) 8, 551 (1959)] to build a microscopic complex optical potential, and then we perform some test calculations on ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ at different energies.

Results:. Our conclusion is that a particular set of potentials with a Lippmann–Schwinger cutoff at relatively high energies (above 500 MeV) reproduces best the scattering observables.

Conclusions: Our work shows that building an optical potential within chiral perturbation theory is a promising approach for describing elastic proton scattering; in particular, in view of the future inclusion of many-body forces that naturally arises in such a framework.

• Received 15 October 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.93.034619