A survey of selected pion-nucleus reactions using phase-shift-equivalent potentials

Since pion-nucleus elastic scattering data can only constrain the asymptotic behavior of the scattered wave, it remains for inelastic scattering and reaction data to test the wave function in the nuclear interior. To this end, distorted-wave impulse approximation calculations have been performed for a variety of low-energy pion reactions using phase-shift-equivalent pion-nucleus potentials: inelastic excitation, photoproduction, and the (π, p) reaction. Sensitivity of the reaction cross sections to variations in the equivalent potentials is examined, with an eye toward understanding what can be learned about pion-nucleus dynamics from a given set of reaction data.