Polarization forces in elastic nuclear coulomb scattering

The polarization potential is determined for the adiabatic sub-Coulomb scattering of two nuclei. No collective coordinates are used. The relevant nuclear polarizabilities are evaluated by means of sum rules. The departure from the pure Rutherford scattering law is calculated for various nuclei. For adiabatic heavy-ion collision the differential cross section is found to be reduced below the Coulomb scattering by one percent at backward angles.