An interaction potential for heavy-ion scattering

The long-range part of the nucleus-nucleus interaction is taken to be given by folding the density distribution of one nucleus with the real part of the single-nucleon optical potential of the other. Analytic approximations are derived for the folded potential and its derivative in the case where the density distribution and single-nucleon optical potential have Saxon-Woods form factors of equal surface thickness. The approximations are generalised to the case of different surface thicknesses and are compared with a previous parametrisation due to Broglia and Winther. The variation with mass number of the central density of the Saxon-Woods matter distribution required to obtain the correct normalisation is shown to be large and an expression for the variation is given. Some calculations are performed on various elastic scattering data using the “quarter-point recipe” of Frahn's diffraction theory. The parameters required to fit the quarter-points of the elastic cross sections are shown to be consistent with their accepted values. It is shown, however, that the quarter-point recipe leads to a larger radius for ²⁰⁸Pb than for ²³²Th. The positions and heights of the pure Coulomb barrier (L = 0) are evaluated for various nuclei. The barrier radii are found to be sufficiently large to suggest that an interaction of the folded type should be reasonable in this region.