Optical-Model Potentials for Composite Particles

Abstract

The optical model is very successful not only in the description of nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering, but also in the description of the elastic scattering of composite particles by nuclei [HO 71]. In the case of nucleon-nucleus scattering at low energies, the scattering cross section displays isolated resonance peaks and the optical model yields the shape-elastic part of the cross section averaged over a certain energy interval. At higher energies where many reaction channels are open and compound resonances overlap, the cross section becomes slowly varying with energy. Then, the optical model reproduces the full cross section, since the fluctuating part of the cross section is now negligibly small.