Nucleus-Nucleus Long-Range Interaction Potential in Elastic Scattering

Abstract

Differential cross sections are calculated for the elastic scattering of heavy nuclei by heavy nuclei and the results are compared with experiment. The long-range part of the nucleus-nucleus interaction is assumed to be representable by a two-body potential, and the attempt is made to calculate the latter in terms of the experimentally determined nucleon-nucleus optical-model potential extrapolated to negative energies and an adjustable reduced width parameter which determines the probability of finding individual nucleons at the surface of each nucleus. The short-range part of the nucleus-nucleus interaction is represented schematically by a complex potential or an ingoing wave boundary condition, the justification for which as a representation of the optical-model potential is given below. Reasonable agreement with experiment is obtained for the experimental data considered, i.e., those for ${\mathrm{C}}^{12}$-${\mathrm{O}}^{16}$, ${\mathrm{N}}^{14}$-${\mathrm{N}}^{14}$, and ${\mathrm{C}}^{12}$-${\mathrm{N}}^{14}$ if the average-reduced-width parameter equal to about one-fifth the corresponding single-particle value is employed.