Multistep effects in the elastic and inelastic scattering of 70.4-MeVC12ions from the even neodymium isotopes

The interference of Coulomb and nuclear excitation was studied by the scattering of 70.4-MeV ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$ ions from the stable even Nd nuclei (${}_{}{}^{142}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Nd}$, ${}_{}{}^{144}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Nd}$, ${}_{}{}^{146}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Nd}$, ${}_{}{}^{148}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Nd}$, ${}_{}{}^{150}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Nd}$). The differential cross sections for inelastic scattering from the low-lying $2^{+}$, $4^{+}$, $3^{-}$, and $2_2^{+}$ states, as well as elastic scattering from these isotopes, were obtained. In addition, the cross sections for exciting the $2^{+}$ (4.43 MeV) state of the ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$ projectile and the $6^{+}$ state in ${}_{}{}^{150}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Nd}$ were also obtained. The differential cross sections for exciting low-lying collective states of the target and projectile are compared with distorted-wave Born-approximation and coupled-channels calculations. Standard distorted-wave Born-approximation calculations using known Coulomb matrix elements fail to fit the data. The coupled-channels analysis, however, can account for these data and reveals the importance of multistep processes in heavy ion reactions.