Polarization potentials in heavy-ion scattering

Abstract

A polarization potential is defined in terms of the Feshbach projection operator formalism to represent the effect upon the elastic channel of the coupling to non-elastic channels in heavy-ion scattering. The polarization potential represents coupling to specific surface degrees of freedom of the particular reaction considered and it is contrasted to the complementary global approaches for the volume potential such as the folding model and the proximity potential. The coupled channels method is used both as a source of exact model solutions for comparison with the various approximate potential forms and also as a numerical means of constructing trivially equivalent local potentials. The imaginary Coulomb polarization potential is due in lowest order to quadrupole coupling to the lowest collective 2 + state of a nucleus. It is considered in detail since it provides the insight of closed analytical forms in various approximations. Multistep coupling to higher states, energy loss and off-energy shell effects are also considered analytically. The real Coulomb polarization potential due to the virtual excitation of multipole giant resonances, and the polarization potential arising from relativistic corrections, are investigated in detail. Polarization potential components due to nuclear coupling are investigated numerically. Analytical cross section approaches are contrasted with the polarization potential approach and with coupled channels.