Self-consistent heavy-ion potentials

Abstract
Calculations of the real part of the heavy-ion potential have been performed for the systems C12 + C12, O16 + O16, and Ca40 + Ca40 using the Hartree-Fock method with a constraint on the center-of-mass distance. The interaction used is the Skyrme force SIII. For the case of O16 + O16 a detailed discussion of the nuclear structure with increasing overlap of the ions is given. It is found that the individual shell structures of the two O16 nuclei survive until the density in the neck region has reached about 50% of its maximum value. The calculated potentials have been used in an optical model code to calculate elastic excitation functions. The agreement with the empirically determined best fit potentials is remarkable.