Gross properties of heavy-ion transfer reactions: (I). Formulation

A simple approximation to the semiclassieal theory of heavy-ion transfer reactions is presented. For one-nucleon transfer reactions it reduces to the matching condition model given by Brink. Inelastic scattering and multinucleon transfer reactions can also be treated for either case in which heavy ions follow a straight-line trajectory or temporarily form a dinuclear system. For multistep processes a binary-step approximation is introduced, in which some effects of the time differences between consecutive transfer events are taken into account. Finally the possibility of treating the multinucleon transfer reaction as a Markov process is suggested.