Effects of a Nuclear Octupole Moment on Neutron Scattering

Recent applications of the nuclear optical model to the description of neutron scattering by spheroidal nuclei have shown that "shape effects" are very important for highly deformed nuclei. It has also been found that the "adiabatic approximation," which assumes the nucleus to be rigidly fixed in orientation throughout the scattering, is remarkably accurate for very lowenergy ($S$-wave) neutrons.