Semiclassical coulomb excitation in the sudden approximation

Abstract

A method to evaluate corrections to the Alder and Winther theory of Coulomb excitation is developed. The method is only valid for the sudden case and provides expressions for the scattering amplitudes and excitation cross sections that include the 1 η corrections to the Alder-Winther results. These corrections are caused by the deviations of the relative motion from a Rutherford orbit and their influence on the motion of the target. Results of numerical calculations are presented and compared with the uncorrected and the coupled channels results. The method is shown to be equivalent to the more general formalism developed by Sukumar and Brink. Its advantages are that it is much simpler and it allows for an understanding of the physical meaning of the approximations involved.