Relativistic Corrections to the Polarization of Protons at High Energies

Relativistic corrections to high-energy $p-p$ polarization data are calculated, with a breakdown of contributions into parts corresponding to the anomalous proton magnetic moment and remaining effects. It is found that as much as 70% of the relativistic correction may be caused by the anomalous part of the proton moment. In view of the presence of wave function distortion effects and the difference in sensitivity of different parts of the correction to the appreciable wave function distortion effects recently pointed out by Breit, it is concluded that the values of the relativistic corrections to polarization are at present quite unreliable. On the other hand, the corrections are smaller than the experimental error in many cases and their unreliability does not appear to affect existing fits to data seriously.