Airy structure in inelastic light-ion and light heavy-ion scattering

Abstract

We suggest that the transparency displayed by some light heavy-ion systems, such as $^{16}\mathrm{O}+^{16}\mathrm{O}$, $^{16}\mathrm{O}+^{12}\mathrm{C}$, or $^{12}\mathrm{C}+^{12}\mathrm{C}$, which manifests itself by the emergence of Airy structure in the elastic scattering angular distributions and excitation functions, could also have observable consequences in some inelastic channels. Indeed benchmark calculations for the $\ensuremath{\alpha}+^{40}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{a}$ light-ion system, where a similar mechanism dominates elastic scattering at low energy, reveals the persistence in inelastic scattering of the interference mechanism between the barrier-wave and internal-wave components of the scattering amplitude which underlies the Airy structure in the elastic channel. These calculations seem to point to new phase rules between the elastic and inelastic angular distributions.