The suggestion made recently by H. Abele et al. that relativistic effects in the interaction of alpha particles with various nuclei at intermediate energies may remove the existing discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and the experimental data for the reaction cross section is investigated. We use a relativistic model based on the Kemmer-Duffin-Petiau equation and find that relativistic effects do not lead to a reduction in the reaction cross section within the present approach. Alternative explanations are discussed.

• Received 13 February 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.52.415