Nuclear-rainbow scattering and nucleus-nucleus potentials at short distances

The elastic scattering of strongly bound nuclei at energies of 10 to 70 MeV per nucleon shows the phenomenon of “rainbow scattering.” A nuclear rainbow appears because of deflection to negative angles. This process involves a strong overlap of nuclear densities, with values of up to twice the saturation density of nuclear matter. The ¹⁶O+¹⁶O system is studied with a high precision over a wide energy range from 7 to 70 MeV per nucleon in several laboratories. Primary Airy maxima and higher order Airy structures are observed. At all energies, excellent fits are obtained with deep potentials as deduced from the double-folding model involving a nucleon-nucleon interaction weakly dependent on the density. It is shown that Pauli blocking expected at low energies is strongly reduced if the local momenta are calculated self-consistently. Systematics confirms a refractive origin of large-angle scattering, at low energies inclusive. Thus, nuclear-rainbow scattering yields unique information about the properties of cold nuclear matter at higher densities.