Nuclear matter approach to the heavy-ion optical potential: (II). Imaginary part

Abstract

The heavy-ion optical potentials are constructed in a nuclear matter approach, for the 16O + 16O, 40Ca + 16O and 40Ca + 40Ca elastic scattering at the incident energies per nucleon E lab/ A ⩽ 45 MeV. The energy density formalism is employed assuming that the complex energy density of colliding heavy ions is a functional of the nucleon density ϱ( r), the intrinsic kinetic energy density τ (2)( r) and the average momentum of relative motion per nucleon K r(≦ 1.5 fm −1). The complex energy density is numerically evaluated for the two units of colliding nuclear matter with the same values of ρ, τ (2) and K r. The Bethe-Goldstone equation is solved for the corresponding Fermi distribution in momentum space using the Reid soft-core interaction. The “self-consistent” single-particle potential for unoccupied states which is continuous at the Fermi surface plays a crucial role to produce the imaginary part. It is found that the calculated optical potentials become more attractive and absorptive with increasing incident energy. The elastic scattering and the reaction cross sections are in fair agreement with the experimental data.