Relativistic effects in heavy-ion Coulomb scattering

The role of relativistic corrections in Coulomb scattering of heavy ions at intermediate energy collisions ($E_{lab}\gtrsim 50$ MeV/n) is investigated by numerically solving a full set of coupled equations. We compare two methods, (a) one involving an exact account of interaction retardation with (b) a method based on the expansion of effective Lagrangians in powers of the ion velocities, $v/c$.Our study makes it possible to infer the relevance of kinematic corrections, retardation, and magnetic interactions such as the Darwin force. We show that analytical formulas are able to describe all aspects of experimental interest in relativistic effects in heavy-ion Coulomb scattering at intermediate energies without having to solve numerically the coupled equations.