Coupled channels description of single and mutual excitation in the scattering of 7Li from 12C and 24, 26Mg

Abstract

Coupled channels calculations have been made for the scattering of 7Li from 12C at 63 and 79 MeV and from 24,26Mg at 88 MeV. The calculations describe, simultaneously, the elastic scattering, excitation of 7Li to the 478 keV 1 2 − state, excitation of the target to its first 2 + state, and the mutual excitation of both projectile and target to their 1 2 − and 2 + states respectively. The potentials have been calculated by a double folding model using the M3Y effective interaction for the real part, and a gaussian effective interaction for the imaginary part. Realistic densities have been used for the ground states of 7Li, 12C and 24, 26Mg and also the transition densities to the excited states using a microscopic plus macroscopic prescription. For the mutual excitation, both one-step processes with l = 0, 2 and 4 and two-step processes were included. The calculations show that the two-step processes are the dominant contribution to the mutual excitation, but at forward angles, the oscillations in the data are only reproduced with the coherent addition of the one-step processes, which are dominated by the l = 4 contribution. Even when coupling to all single and mutual excitations are included the real potential still requires a normalization of about 0.6. The addition of the quadrupole re-orientation matrix element for the ground state does not significantly change this value. These calculations confirm that the coupling to the first excited inelastic levels of target and ejectile is not the source of the anomalous M3Y normalization, and that the dominant mode for mutual excitation is a two-step process. However, direct one-step mutual excitation is important for small angles (θ ≲ 20°).