# Elastic Scattering Phenomenology

## TL;DR

This paper critiques traditional elastic scattering data fits, emphasizing the need for more ambitious phenomenology to better understand nuclear scattering dynamics and evaluate models effectively.

## Contribution

It proposes an alternative approach to elastic scattering phenomenology that fully utilizes empirical data and improves model evaluation for light nuclei.

## Key findings

- Traditional fits often overlook dynamic information.
- The new approach enhances understanding of scattering mechanisms.
- It provides a better framework for model validation.

## Abstract

We argue that, in many situations, fits to elastic scattering data that were historically, and frequently still are, considered `good', are not justifiably so describable. Information about the dynamics of nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus scattering is lost when elastic scattering phenomenology is insufficiently ambitious. It is argued that in many situations, an alternative approach is appropriate for the phenomenology of nuclear elastic scattering of nucleons and other light nuclei. The approach affords an appropriate means of evaluating folding models, one that fully exploits available empirical data. It is particularly applicable for nucleons and other light ions.