Critique of explanations of the anomalous large-angle scattering of alpha particles

Several alternative analyses of anomalous large-angle scattering data for elastic scattering of $\alpha$ particles from nuclei are illustrated. Statistically equivalent fits to the data are achieved by various parametrizations of the optical potential. These fits though statistically insignificant in the sense that $\frac{{\chi }^2}{N}\gg 1$ are comparable to or better than those produced by different representations of the potential. We therefore question the ability to reach detailed conclusions about any microscopic model of the processes giving rise to anomalous large-angle scattering.