Polarization in elastic electron scattering from spin nuclei

The spin asymmetry in the scattering of highly relativistic spin-polarized electrons from inert nuclei is calculated by means of a coherent superposition of the electric and magnetic transition amplitudes. The potential scattering is treated with the help of a phase shift analysis while the elastic magnetic scattering is described within the Born approximation. With the exception of longitudinally spin-polarized electrons, the spin asymmetry is generally found to be reduced when magnetic scattering is taken into account. Predictions are made for 20–100 MeV electrons scattering from the spin nuclei 1H, 19F, 31P and 207Pb.