Relativistic effects in heavy-ion Coulomb scattering
The role of relativistic corrections in heavy ion Coulomb scattering at intermediate energies (Elab & 50 MeV/nucleon) is investigated by numerically solving a full set of coupled equations. We compare two methods: (a) one involving an exact account of interaction retardation with (b) a method based on the expansion of effective Lagrangians in powers of the ion velocities, v/c. Our study allows to infer the relevance of kinematic corrections, of retardation, and of magnetic interactions such as the Darwin force. We show that analytical formulas are able to describe all aspects of experimental interest of relativistic effects in heavy ion Coulomb scattering at intermediate energies without having to solve numerically the coupled equations.