XXI. Elastic scattering of high energy electrons by mercury

We have attempted to fit experimental results for the scattering of electrons by heavy nuclei at 126, 154 and 183 Mev with curves obtained from various assumed nuclear models by way of a phase shift analysis carried out for the case of mercury. At these energies only nuclear scattering is important and the nuclear model completely determines the scattering. Charge distributions which reproduce the experimental curves either are homogeneous or have a slight dip near the centre of the nucleus and have their main decrease on the surface of the nucleus over a transition range of between 1·7 and 3·2 × 10 -13 cm. The root mean square radius of the distribution is determined to be approximately R = 1·2 × 10 -13 × A 1/3 cm, to a relative accuracy of about 5 %.