Hard high-energy pion-nucleus bremsstrahlung, $\pi^- +A\to\pi^- +\gamma +A$,
is studied in the Coulomb region, i.e. the small-angle region where the nuclear
scattering is dominated by the Coulomb interaction. Special attention is
focussed on the possibility of measuring the pion polarizability in such
reactions. We study the sensitivity to the structure of the underlying the
pion-Compton amplitude through a model with $\sigma$, $\rho$, and a_1
exchanges. It is found that the effective energy in the virtual pion-Compton
scattering is often so large that the threshold approximation does not apply.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
Pion-nucleus bremsstrahlung offers a possibility of measuring the structure functions of pionCompton scattering from a study of the small-momentum-transfer region where the bremsstrahlung reaction is dominated by the single-photon-exchange mechanism. The corresponding cross-section distribution is characterized by a sharp peak at small momentum transfers. But there is also a hadronic contribution which is smooth and constitutes an undesired background. In this communication the modification of the single-photon exchange amplitude by multiple-Coulomb scattering is investigated as well as the Coulomb-nuclear interference term.
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