Nucleus-Nucleus Long-Range Interaction Potential in Elastic Scattering

Differential cross sections are calculated for the elastic scattering of heavy nuclei by heavy nuclei and the results are compared with experiment. The long-range part of the nucleus-nucleus interaction is assumed to be representable by a two-body potential, and the attempt is made to calculate the latter in terms of the experimentally determined nucleon-nucleus optical-model potential extrapolated to negative energies and an adjustable reduced width parameter which determines the probability of finding individual nucleons at the surface of each nucleus. The short-range part of the nucleus-nucleus interaction is represented schematically by a complex potential or an ingoing wave boundary condition, the justification for which as a representation of the optical-model potential is given below. Reasonable agreement with experiment is obtained for the experimental data considered, i.e., those for ${\mathrm{C}}^{12}$-${\mathrm{O}}^{16}$, ${\mathrm{N}}^{14}$-${\mathrm{N}}^{14}$, and ${\mathrm{C}}^{12}$-${\mathrm{N}}^{14}$ if the average-reduced-width parameter equal to about one-fifth the corresponding single-particle value is employed.