Nuclear mean field and double-folding model of the nucleus-nucleus optical potential

TL;DR

This paper develops an extended double-folding model incorporating rearrangement effects and energy dependence of nuclear mean-field potentials, improving the description of nucleus-nucleus scattering and rainbow phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a modified double-folding model that accounts for rearrangement effects and energy dependence in nuclear interactions based on advanced Hartree-Fock calculations.

Findings

Rearrangement term significantly influences the real optical potential at small distances.

The extended model accurately reproduces the Airy structure in nuclear rainbow scattering.

Potential strength aligns with realistic optical model descriptions.

Abstract

Realistic density dependent CDM3Yn versions of the M3Y interaction have been used in an extended Hartree-Fock (HF) calculation of nuclear matter (NM), with the nucleon single-particle potential determined from the total NM energy based on the Hugenholtz-van Hove theorem that gives rise naturally to a rearrangement term (RT). Using the RT of the single-nucleon potential obtained exactly at different NM densities, the density- and energy dependence of the CDM3Yn interactions was modified to account properly for both the RT and observed energy dependence of the nucleon optical potential. Based on a local density approximation, the double-folding model of the nucleus-nucleus optical potential has been extended to take into account consistently the rearrangement effect and energy dependence of the nuclear mean-field potential, using the modified CDM3Yn interactions. The extended double-folding model was applied to study the elastic $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C and $^{16}$O+$^{12}$C scattering at the refractive energies, where the Airy structure of the nuclear rainbow has been well established. The RT was found to affect significantly the real nucleus-nucleus optical potential at small internuclear distances, giving the potential strength close to that implied by the realistic optical model description of the Airy oscillation.