Vacuum polarization- and molecular-potential effects in heavy-ion scattering

The corrections to the heavy-ion scattering cross sections due to the presence of perturbing vacuum polarization and molecular potentials are evaluated. We find effects on the cross section up to 0.7% in ${}_{}{}^{16}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{O}$ with ${}_{}{}^{208}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Pb}$ collisions due to vacuum polarization and up to 2.6% in U with Th collisions due to molecular and vacuum polarization corrections.