On the influence of nuclear deformation in the elastic scattering of polarized electrons

Abstract Elastic electron scattering from deformed nuclei is described within the distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) by employing charge densities which reflect, respectively, the prolate and oblate shapes of the target nucleus. Clear evidence for the shape dependence of the differential cross section and of the electronic spin asymmetry is found at scattering angles in the vicinity of the first diffractive cross section minimum. As an example, results for the $$^{27}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mmultiscripts> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mn>27</mml:mn> </mml:mmultiscripts> </mml:math> Al nucleus at collision energies between 150 and 500 MeV are provided.