Optical potential approach in scattering of hadrons from light nuclei

A new calculational approach is described which reproduces the Watson multiple scattering series, simplified by neglecting the terms describing the repeated scatterings of a projectile on the same target nucleon. The approach involves solving sets of uncoupled wave equations (Schrödinger or Dirac) with effective optical potentials of the analogous form as the first order optical potential used in the standard impulse approximation optical models. Our approach is particularly suitable in multiple scattering calculations for elastic scattering of hadrons from light nuclei. As an example of the application of the proposed method we evaluated multiple scattering series for the elastic scattering of protons from ${}_{}{}^4{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{He}$ with the purpose of assessing the importance of relativistic effects in this reaction.