The effective interaction for unbound nucleons and the optical potential

Abstract

The effective interaction for an unbound nucleon in a complex nucleus is studied with particular emphasis upon the relationship of the unbound state interaction with the interaction for bound states. A successful unified treatment of unbound and bound states is given, and the unbound state effective interaction is related to the standard “optical model”. The attractive force for an unbound nucleon is shown to be of an exchange type and is best represented by a non-local, energy-independent potential which can be calculated, at least for not too high incident nucleon energy, from the attractive interaction between bound nucleons in a nucleus. We relate the unbound state potential to the bound state effective force as calculated by Negele using Hartree-Fock theory. A non-local potential used by Elton, Webb, and Barrett in a successful analysis of electron scattering is shown, with minor modification, to work remarkably well in an analysis of elastic scattering of protons. Excellent agreement with experiment is obtained for the differential cross section and the polarization of protons with an incident energy up to 60 MeV scattered from 40 Ca, 58 Ni, 120 Sn and 208 Pb. The real potential parameters are shown to be independent of the incident energy and physically reasonable; the imaginary potential parameters agree with expectations from Fermi gas and collective models. Bound state energy levels are also calculated with no readjustment of the real potential parameters in order to check the consistency of the interaction with the bound states, and the results are in good agreement with Negele. The interaction of Skyrme as modified by Vautherin and Brink is also used in an analysis of elastic proton scattering. Good results are obtained for the differential cross section and the polarization for 20 MeV protons scattered from 58 Ni. At higher incident proton energy, and for larger nuclei, the results are poorer.