Optical model potentials for deuteron scattering off $^{24}$Mg, $^{28}$Si, $^{58}$Ni, $^{90}$Zr, $^{116}$Sn, and $^{208}$Pb at $\sim$100 MeV/nucleon

TL;DR

This study measures deuteron scattering off various nuclei at ~100 MeV/nucleon to refine optical potential models, comparing phenomenological and semi-microscopic approaches, and extracting nuclear transition probabilities.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data and compares two different optical potential models for deuteron scattering at intermediate energies.

Findings

Both potential models successfully describe the scattering data.

The semi-microscopic model offers a more fundamental understanding of the interaction.

Transition probabilities are extracted and validated against existing data.

Abstract

Angular distributions of the elastic and inelastic deuteron-nucleus scattering off $^{24}$Mg, $^{28}$Si, $^{58}$Ni, $^{90}$Zr, $^{116}$Sn, and $^{208}$Pb have been measured at a beam energy of 98 MeV/nucleon, with the goal of constraining the deuteron optical potential in this kinematical regime, and to extract the reduced transition probabilities for the ground-state transitions to low-lying excited states of these nuclei. Two potential models were used in the analysis of the measured $(d,d)$ and $(d,d')$ data within the optical model and the distorted-wave Born approximation: the phenomenological optical model potential associated with the collective model of nuclear scattering, and the semi-microscopic double-folding model of the deuteron-nucleus potential based on a realistic density-dependent M3Y interaction. The deuteron optical potential and inelastic $(d,d')$ scattering form factors were calculated using these two potential models, allowing for a direct comparison between the potential models as well as the validation of the deduced $E\lambda$ transition rates.