A phenomenological imaginary part of the optical potential for heavy ions

Abstract

The depth of the imaginary part of the optical potential is derived from the assumption that, at a given energy and for each partial wave L, it is proportional to the compound nucleus density level up to a given excitation energy above the yrast level corresponding to the angular momentum L, and remains a constant for smaller values of L. The prescription is successfully tested for the system 16O + 28Si at nine different projectile energies between 33 and 81 MeV; it fails however at 141.5 MeV, as expected, because other channels, besides elastic scattering and fusion, are important.