Proton-nucleus scattering and density dependent meson masses in the nucleus

The influence of density dependent meson masses, proposed in many previous papers, on proton-nucleus scattering in the several hundred MeV region is investigated. Introduction of this density dependence is found to remove the nuclear radius discrepancy which persistently occurred in analyses with the nonrelativistic impulse approximation when empirical nuclear densities obtained from electron scattering were employed. Nonlocality, suggested by earlier derivations of the density dependent masses, had to be introduced. Taking the estimated range of nonlocality from the earlier calculations, agreement with experiment was significantly improved by this introduction. Effects on the spin-orbit interaction and imaginary part of the optical model are qualitatively discussed. The density dependent meson masses aid in increasing the strength of the spin-orbit interaction. Preliminary results calculated in a relativistic impulse approximation (IA2) formalism for the spin observables are shown and discussed.