Comparison of theory and experiment

Abstract

In this section we are finally going to confront experimental data on total cross section, angular distributions and polarization observables with theoretical results in order to establish the present status of our knowledge of this important process. We hope this will enable us to set directions and guidelines for future experimental and theoretical studies, which kind of experiments are needed and what accuracy should be aimed for, where theoretical studies should be extended, on what they should focus and whether some basic assumptions need to be modified. For the comparison we shall use mostly the data of experiments selected in sections 6.3 and 6.4, the relative quantities and the best fits discussed in section 6.2.