Parity dependence in heavy-ion scattering

A range is defined for the effects of parity dependence in heavy-ion scattering. This range is shown to be related to the terms of the antisymmetrizer which exchange the largest number of nucleons between both nuclei. A simple formula, derived in the two-center harmonic oscillator model, gives an upper bound for the parity range. A criterion is proposed to determine whether a parity-dependent real part should be used in heavy-ion optical potentials. The most important parity effects should be expected in scattering between nuclei with neighbouring masses.