Semiclassical Treatment of Direct Nuclear Reactions

Abstract

A semiclassical method is employed to discuss the angular distributions of direct nuclear reactions. The method considers the incident and outgoing particles to be described by rays which follow classical paths; these rays can be refracted, reflected, and absorbed by a "clouded-crystal-ball" nucleus. Any given incident ray is considered to have a certain probability of suffering a major "scattering" at each point within a nucleus, this "scattering" not only changing the direction of the ray but also its wavelength. A condition of angular momentum conservation is imposed on this direct-scattering event, such that the angular momentum change in this process is equal to that required by the direct reaction under consideration.