In this application of Dirac phenomenology a relativistic impulse approximation is used to describe proton-nucleus elastic scattering at intermediate energies. The results demonstrate the superiority of this relativistic treatment over the nonrelativistic impulse approximation, especially with regard to spin observables. The method has important implications with respect to the extraction of neutron distributions.

• Received 16 March 1983

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.50.1644