Two-photon exchange in nonrelativistic approximation

Abstract

We calculate two-photon exchange amplitudes for the elastic electron-hadron scattering in the nonrelativistic approximation, and obtain analytical formulae for them. Numerical calculations are performed for proton and $^3$He targets. Comparing our numerical results with relativistic calculations, we find that the real part of the amplitude is described well at moderate $Q^2$, but the imaginary part strongly differs from the relativistic result. Thus the nonrelativistic approximation should not be used for calculation of observables which depend on the imaginary part of the amplitude, such as single-spin asymmetries.