Pauli exchange effects in the elastic scattering of O + O

The real optical potential for ¹⁶O+¹⁶O system is calculated within a generalized version of the double-folding model with the Pauli knock-on exchange effects between the projectile nucleons and the target nucleons taken into account from first principle. The elastic scattering data at E_lab=350 MeV supplemented by the new measurement at larger angles seem to be the first case in heavy-ion scattering where one can test the reliability of different theoretical heavy-ion optical potentials. Predictions are made for the elastic scattering of ¹⁶O+¹⁶O at laboratory energies of 240–480 MeV to illustrare the energy dependence of the rainbow structure which has been clearly observed in experiment at 350 MeV.