The proton optical-model potential near the Coulomb barrier

Proton elastic scattering data from ¹⁹⁷Au, ²⁰⁸Pb and ²⁰⁹Bi at energies near the Coulomb barrier are analyzed. The energy dependences of the real volume and imaginary surface-derivative potential depths V_R and W_SF of a local optical-model potential with fixed geometric parameters are found to be much more rapid than at higher energies. The strong energy dependence of V_Rnear the Coulomb barrier is explained in terms of the non-locality of the nucleon-nucleus interaction.