The elastic and inelastic proton differential cross sections for ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}$ have been measured at 8.6, 10.6, 12.6, and 14.6 MeV. The variation with energy of the cross sections, as well as the shape of the angular distributions, indicated that the contribution of compound processes to some of the inelastic cross sections was not negligible at these energies. Fits to the elastic scattering data yielded proton optical parameters, which were used in calculating transmission co-efficients for a Hauser-Feshbach calculation of the compound nuclear contribution to the inelastic cross sections. These data corrected for compound effects, and measurements for scattering to the 2.31- and 3.95-MeV levels at 18.0, 21.0, 23.0, and 26.0 MeV reported in the literature, were analyzed with a microscopic coupled-channel calculation. The purpose of the analysis was to find out how sensitive the calculations were to the wave functions used for ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}$, to the values of the effective two-body force, and to the channels coupled. The results were also compared to a simple distorted-wave Born-approximation (DWBA) calculation. Calculations for the 3.95- and 7.03-MeV level were also carried out assuming a weak-coupling model for ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}$, two $p_{\frac{1}{2}}$ nucleons coupled to a ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$ core. This collective model gave over-all better agreement with the measured differential cross sections for these levels than the DWBA or the microscopic coupled-channel calculation.

[NUCLEAR REACTIONS ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}\mathrm{}(p,p)\mathrm{}$, ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}(p,p^{\prime })$, $E=8.6,10.6,12.6, \mathrm{and} 14.6$ MeV; measured $\sigma (E,\theta )$; $\theta =15-{165}^{\circ }$; coupled-channel analysis. ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}(p,p^{\prime })$, $E=18,21,23,26\mathrm{}$ MeV, previous data compared with coupled-channel calculation.]

• Received 16 July 1973

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.8.2072