A search for colour van der Waals interaction

Abstract

It is suggested that the strength of nuclear colour van der Waals interaction, if present, can be determined by measuring deviations from Rutherford scattering of charged hadrons from nuclei, at energies well below the Coulomb barrier. Experimental limit on the strength of such a potential is obtained as λ<50, when the colour van der Waals potential is given by V(r)=λ(hc/r₀)(r₀/r)⁷, with r₀, the scaling length, taken as 1fm. This limit is obtained from an analysis of existing experiments and by performing scattering experiments of 3-4.6 MeV protons from a ²⁰⁸Pb target.