Hydrogen-Helium Isotope Elastic Scattering Processes at Intermediate Energies

Differential cross sections for the elastic scattering of various hydrogen and helium isotopes have been measured using accelerated particles from the Los Alamos 42-inch cyclotron. The scattering of protons and deuterons from deuterons, tritons, and helium-three particles has been studied over an energy range of 5 to 14 Mev. The elastic scattering of \ensuremath{\sim}10-Mev polarized protons has also been studied. In all cases nuclear emulsions were used as detectors.Proton-deuteron elastic scattering has been measured at 5.6 and 7.85 Mev. A comparison is made to results at nearby energies of both $p\ensuremath{-}D$ and $n\ensuremath{-}D$ scattering and to theoretical predictions. The scattering of 10-Mev polarized protons from deuterons has been measured and provides support for calculations using central force approximations.Measurements of $p\ensuremath{-}T$ and $p$-${\mathrm{He}}^{3}$ elastic scattering at 6.5 and 8.34 Mev give angular distributions which are quite similar to those for $p\ensuremath{-}D$ and $p$-${\mathrm{He}}^{4}$. An encouraging agreement is found with resonating-group calculations with central-force approximations of the Serber type.Deuteron-deuteron scattering has been measured at 6.0, 8.2, 12.1, and 13.8 Mev. A preliminary theoretical treatment indicates that the process is predominantly hard-sphere scattering with no strong level splitting.Deuteron-triton and deuteron-helium three scattering has been measured over the energy range of 5 to 14 Mev. The results for the two processes are almost indistinguishable at the present level of accuracy.