Coupling effects in the elastic scattering of the exotic nucleus 6He on protons

Cross sections for the elastic scattering of ⁶He radioactive nuclear beam on proton targets have been measured at 38.3 MeV/nucleon. With a view to test the ability of general optical potentials to reproduce the data for scattering of unstable nuclei, the present results, as well as other existing data for ^6,8He, have been analyzed within the framework of the microscopic Jeukenne-Lejeune-Mahaux nucleon-nucleus potential. The angular distributions were found to be best reproduced by reducing the real part of the optical potential. This renormalization can be seen as a consequence of the complex polarization potential produced by the coupling to the continuum due to the weakly bound nature of the unstable nuclei. This effect can be simulated in a phenomenological analysis by a surface potential. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

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Author John H Kelley Physics