Separable Potentials for (d,p) Reaction Calculations

TL;DR

This paper develops a separable potential approach for (d,p) nuclear reactions involving heavy nuclei, enabling more accurate Faddeev calculations with Coulomb interactions relevant to astrophysics and nuclear energy.

Contribution

It introduces a separable representation of neutron- and proton-nucleus optical potentials for (d,p) reactions using Coulomb distorted basis, facilitating improved three-body reaction calculations.

Findings

Derived a separable form of optical potentials.

Implemented Coulomb distorted basis in momentum space.

Enhanced accuracy of (d,p) reaction modeling.

Abstract

An important ingredient for applications of nuclear physics to e.g. astrophysics or nuclear energy are the cross sections for reactions of neutrons with rare isotopes. Since direct measurements are often not possible, indirect methods like $(d,p)$ reactions must be used instead. Those $(d,p)$ reactions may be viewed as effective three-body reactions and described with Faddeev techniques. An additional challenge posed by $(d,p)$ reactions involving heavier nuclei is the treatment of the Coulomb force. To avoid numerical complications in dealing with the screening of the Coulomb force, recently a new approach using the Coulomb distorted basis in momentum space was suggested. In order to implement this suggestion, one needs to derive a separable representation of neutron- and proton-nucleus optical potentials and compute their matrix elements in this basis.