High Energy Elastic Scattering of Electrons on Protons

The theory of the elastic scattering of electrons on protons at very high energies is discussed in detail. A formula is given for the cross section. This formula contains certain parameters which depend on the action of the virtual photon and meson fields. In particular, curves have been calculated on the assumption of scalar and pseudoscalar meson theory. While these perturbation theory calculations are not very trustworthy, and the results depend on the choice of coupling constants, it is felt that qualitative features can be checked with experiment. It is concluded that at low relativistic energies ($E<50$ Mev) the experiment provides a valuable check on quantum electrodynamics. At higher energies it should yield data on the nature of the meson cloud of the proton.