The effect of deformation on the nucleus-nucleus optical model potential and how it produces pockets

A recently derived nucleon-nucleon interaction has been used to calculate both the real and imaginary parts of the optical-model potential for the two nuclear pairs Pb+U and U+U. Three different bombarding energies per projectile nucléon (6 MeV, 11.8 MeV and 20.9 MeV) have been considered. We found a dramatic dependence of both the real and imaginary parts of the optical-model potential on relative orientation of the colliding nuclei. For the two considered pairs we predicted pockets whose depths depend strongly on orientation.