Gamow–Teller strength functions from scattering experiments

We present here recent results from TRIUMF that are relevant to the determination of spin-flip isovector strength functions in nuclei. Distortion factors needed for the extraction of nuclear-structure information have been deduced from cross sections and analyzing powers in elastic scattering for several energies and targets. Nonrelativistic optical potentials obtained by folding effective nucleon (N)–nucleus interactions with nuclear densities are found to overpredict both elastic and reaction cross sections, whereas Dirac calculations that include Pauli blocking are in good agreement with the data. Spin observables (Snn and Ay) for the quasi-elastic region in 54Fe at 290 MeV provide some evidence for the reduction of the effective proton mass predicted in relativistic mean-field theories as a consequence of the attractive scalar field in the nuclear medium. The energy dependence of the effective N–nucleus interaction at small momentum transfers has been investigated using isoscalar and isovector 1+ stat...