Techniques to Treat the Continuum Applied to Electromagnetic Transitions in 8Be

Bremsstrahlung emission in collisions between charged nuclei is equivalent to nuclear gamma decay between continuum states. The way the continuum spectrum can be treated is not unique, and efficiency and accuracy of cross section calculations depend on the chosen method. In this work we describe, relate, and compare three different methods in practical calculations of inelastic cross sections, that is, by (i) treating the initial and final states as pure continuum states on the real energy axis, (ii) discretizing the continuum states on the real energy axis with a box boundary condition, and (iii) complex rotation of the hamiltonian (complex scaling method). The electric quadrupole transitions, 2⁺ → 0⁺ and 4⁺ → 2⁺, in α + α scattering are taken as an illustration.