Heavy ion scattering problems; regular and chaotic regimes

Abstract

We consider a simple model for a nuclear scattering problem involving the coupling of the relative motion between two heavy ions to an intrinsic (harmonic) degree of freedom. At the classical level, the reaction function — relating unobservable incoming quantities to outgoing observables — is the most sensitive probe of the chaotic nature of the scattering. A general procedure to construct the quantum counterpart to these reaction functions is developed and shown to be very sensitive to the presence of chaos even in the regime of very low quantum numbers. In the regular regime it is possible to reproduce quite accurately the quantal results within a semiclassical approximation, just by letting the different trajectories that lead to an identical outcome interfere. We explore ways to extend such a prescription into the chaotic regime.