Measurements of proton strength functions and comparisons with theory

Using a high-resolution proton beam of the Tokyo Institute of Technology Van de Graaff, precise measurements of elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections have been performed in the past 15 years. By directly observing individual proton resonances, their spins, parities and proton decay widths were deduced. From these experiments we have evaluated (1) proton strength functions in terms of target mass number and of incident proton energy and (2) Coulomb matrix elements for split analogue resonances. (orig.)