Interaction current in pp→ppγ

The nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung reaction is investigated based on a fully gauge-invariant relativistic meson-exchange model approach. To account consistently for the complicated part of the interaction current (which at present is too demanding to be calculated explicitly), a generalized contact current is introduced following the approach of H. Haberzettl, K. Nakayama and S. Krewald Phys. Rev. C 74 045202 (2006). The contact interaction current is constructed phenomenologically such that the resulting full bremsstrahlung amplitude satisfies the generalized Ward-Takahashi identity. The formalism is applied to describe the high-precision proton-proton bremsstrahlung data at 190 MeV obtained at KVI [ H. Huisman et al. Phys. Rev. C 65 031001 (2002)]. The present results show good agreement with the data, thus removing the long-standing discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and experimental data. The present investigation, therefore, points to the importance of properly taking into account the interaction current for this reaction.