Use of α + α scattering to study the nucleon-nucleon interaction

An analysis of delta4 for α + α scattering below 15 MeV (c.m.) has been made to study whether or not useful information about the direct part V/sub d/ of the nucleon-nucleon interaction can be obtained. It was expected that the peripheral nature of the l = 4 interaction would allow a relatively simple analysis to be made. However, it was found that such an analysis does not exclude any of the commonly used nucleon-nucleon potentials as being inconsistent with α + α scattering, but that proper handling of the short-range part of V/sub d/ might well result in such an exclusion