Proton-nucleus elastic scattering: Comparison between phenomenological and microscopic optical potentials

Background: Elastic scattering is a very important process to understand nuclear interactions in finite nuclei. Despite decades of efforts, the goal of reaching a coherent description of this physical process in terms of microscopic forces is still far from being completed. Purpose: In previous papers we derived a nonrelativistic theoretical optical potential from nucleon-nucleon chiral potentials at fourth (N3LO) and fifth order (N4LO). We checked convergence patterns and established theoretical error bands. With this work we study the performances of our optical potential in comparison with those of a successful nonrelativistic phenomenological optical potential in the description of elastic proton scattering data on several isotopic chains at energies around and above 200 MeV. Methods: We use the same framework and the same approximations as adopted in our previous papers, where the nonrelativistic optical potential is derived at the first-order term within the spectator expansion of the multiple scattering theory and adopting the impulse approximation and the optimum factorization approximation. Results: The cross sections and analyzing powers for elastic proton scattering off calcium, nickel, tin, and lead isotopes are presented for several incident proton energies, exploring the range 156≤E≤333 MeV, where experimental data are available. In addition, we provide theoretical predictions for Ni56 at 400 MeV, which is of interest for the future experiments at EXL. Conclusions: Our results indicate that microscopic optical potentials derived from nucleon-nucleon chiral potentials at N4LO can provide reliable predictions for the cross section and the analyzing power both of stable and exotic nuclei, even at energies where the reliability of the chiral expansion starts to be questionable.