Coulomb Connections to the Scattering of Deuterons at Low Energy.

The effect of an externally applied non-uniform electric field upon the relative and centre of mass motion of a deuteron is studied. The field, which changes the deuteron binding energy and internal wavefunction, gives rise to an optical potential which distorts the centre of mass motion. The optical potential derived using the Feshbach formalism is compared with that of the PSS approach. It is found to contain corrections to the Watanabe (strong interaction) potential and terms of purely Coulomb origin, VoC. The components of VoC, which comprise long range central and tensor interactions, are calculated using a perturbation expansion. The solution of the Schrodinger equation, when including these potentials requires new techniques in order to match to the asymptotic solutions and hence derive the scattering matrix. The implications of the terms in of higher order than the dominant terms which go as R-3 and R-4 , upon the reaction observables in low energy scattering are investigated. We also study, in detail, the strength of the R-4 term, namely the electric polarizability of the deuteron. In particular, we analyse the extent to which it is sensitive to, and hence can be used to test, model n-p interactions