Incomplete absorption reactions at high energy

TL;DR

This paper investigates the limitations of the strong absorption assumption in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, proposing a method to quantify incomplete absorption effects, with implications for understanding nuclear density profiles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to measure the 'blackness' or completeness of absorption in reaction cross sections, challenging the traditional optical model assumption.

Findings

Incomplete absorption occurs at low overlap densities.

Quantification method applied to proton-rich C isotopes.

Impacts interpretation of nuclear density profiles.

Abstract

The total reaction cross section of high-energy nucleus-nucleus collision refects the nuclear density profiles of the colliding nuclei and has been a standard tool to investigate the size properties of short-lived unstable nuclei. This basis relies on the assumption that the nucleus-nucleus collision is strongly absorptive in the sense of an optical model. However, this property does not hold completely, while incomplete absorption occurs when an overlap density of two colliding nuclei is low enough. In this paper, we propose a way to quantify this incompleteness, that is, the "blackness" of the total reaction cross section. A significance of this quantification is drawn by taking an example of the total reaction cross sections of proton-rich C isotopes.