The thermal self-consistent semiclassical approach and microscopic nucleon-nucleus optical potentials at finite temperature

Abstract

The nucleon densities ρ q ( q = n, p) of three hot nuclei — 40Ca, 90Zr and 208Pb — at several temperatures are determined by a thermal self-consistent semiclassical (TSCSC) calculation. These densities are utilized, together with the nuclear matter approach and local density approximation (LDA), to evaluate nucleon-nucleus optical potentials at finite temperature. The potentials obtained in this way are fully self-consistent and microscopic at the level of nucleon density, since the same Skyrme force SKa is employed in determining the nucleon densities of target nuclei and in calculating the potentials. The temperature dependence of the nucleon mean free path (MFP) is evaluated and analysed using this optical potential. The influence of temperature on the potential and MFP is better taken care of by the present approach than by previous calculations with Negele's temperature-independent empirical densities. The extension of the present calculation to the high-energy region and the approximate evaluation of the optical potentials, using the low-temperature expansion to the Fermi-Dirac integrals, are also discussed in this paper.