On the separation of the direct reaction contribution in fluctuating cross sections by the use of polarized particles

A method to determine the direct reaction contribution y_D to the differential cross section in the presence of Ericson fluctuations is proposed. For the scattering of polarized $\text{spin}\text{-}\text{1}\text{2}$ particles from spinless nuclei the statistical analysis of the differential cross section dσ/dΩ and of the differential analyzing power $\text{(}\text{d}\text{σ/}\text{d}\text{Ω)A}$ allows an unambiguous and model independent extraction of y_D. The method is applied to the elastic scattering of polarized protons from ²⁶Mg, ⁸⁸Sr and ⁹⁰Zr; the results are in agreement with Hauser-Feshbach calculations.