No Arabic abstract
The optical model potentials for nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering at $65$~MeV are calculated for $^{12}$C, $^{16}$O, $^{28}$Si, $^{40}$Ca, $^{56}$Fe, $^{90}$Zr and $^{208}$Pb in first order multiple scattering theory, following the prescription of the spectator expansion, where the only inputs are the free NN potentials, the nuclear densities and the nuclear mean field as derived from microscopic nuclear structure calculations. These potentials are used to predict differential cross sections, analyzing powers and spin rotation functions for neutron and proton scattering at 65 MeV projectile energy and compared with available experimental data.
Background: Effective interactions for elastic nucleon-nucleus scattering from first principles require the use of the same nucleon-nucleon interaction in the structure and reaction calculations, as well as a consistent treatment of the relevant operators at each order. Purpose: Previous work using these interactions has shown good agreement with available data. Here, we study the physical relevance of one of these operators, which involves the spin of the struck nucleon, and examine the interpretation of this quantity in a nuclear structure context. Methods: Using the framework of the spectator expansion and the underlying framework of the no-core shell model, we calculate and examine spin-projected, one-body momentum distributions required for effective nucleon-nucleus interactions in $J=0$ nuclear states. Results: The calculated spin-projected, one-body momentum distributions for $^4$He, $^6$He, and $^8$He display characteristic behavior based on the occupation of protons and neutrons in single particle levels, with more nucleons of one type yielding momentum distributions with larger values. Additionally, we find this quantity is strongly correlated to the magnetic moment of the $2^+$ excited state in the ground state rotational band for each nucleus considered. Conclusions: We find that spin-projected, one-body momentum distributions can probe the spin content of a $J=0$ wave function. This feature may allow future textit{ab initio} nucleon-nucleus scattering studies to inform spin properties of the underlying nucleon-nucleon interactions. The observed correlation to the magnetic moment of excited states illustrates a previously unknown connection between reaction observables such as the analyzing power and structure observables like the magnetic moment.
The influence of the energy dependence of the free NN t-matrix on the optical potential of nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering is investigated within the context of a full-folding model based on the impulse approximation. The treatment of the pole structure of the NN t-matrix, which has to be taken into account when integrating to negative energies is described in detail. We calculate proton-nucleus elastic scattering observables for $^{16}$O, $^{40}$Ca, and $^{208}$Pb between 65 and 200 MeV laboratory energy and study the effect of the energy dependence of the NN t-matrix. We compare this result with experiment and with calculations where the center-of-mass energy of the NN t-matrix is fixed at half the projectile energy. It is found that around 200 MeV the fixed energy approximation is a very good representation of the full calculation, however deviations occur when going to lower energies (65 MeV).
The sensitivity of nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering observables to the off-shell structure of nucleon-nucleon t-matrices, derived from realistic NN potentials, is investigated within the context of a full-folding model based on the impulse approximation. Our study uses recently developed NN potential models, which describe a subset of the NN data base with a $chi^2$ per datum $sim$1, which means that the NN t-matrices are essentially on-shell equivalent. We calculate proton-nucleus elastic scattering observables for $^{16}$O, $^{40}$Ca, and $^{208}$Pb between 100 and 200 MeV laboratory energy. We find that the elastic scattering observables are insensitive to off-shell differences of the employed NN t-matrices. A more detailed investigation of the scattering equation and the optical potential as given in a factorized approximation reveals that the elastic scattering observables do not sample the NN t-matrices very far off-shell where they exhibit differences.
Background: Calculating microscopic effective interactions (optical potentials) for elastic nucleon-nucleus scattering has already in the past led to a large body of work. For first-order calculations a nucleon-nucleon (textit{NN}) interaction and a one-body density of the nucleus were taken as input to rigorous calculations of microscopic full-folding calculations. Purpose: Based on the spectator expansion of the multiple scattering series we employ a chiral next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) nucleon-nucleon interaction on the same footing in the structure as well as in the reaction calculation to obtain an in leading-order consistent effective potential for nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering, which includes the spin of the struck target nucleon. Methods: The first order effective folding potential is computed by first deriving a nonlocal scalar density as well as a spin-projected momentum distribution. Those are then integrated with the off-shell Wolfenstein amplitudes $A$, $C$, and $M$. The resulting nonlocal potential serves as input to a momentum-space Lippmann-Schwinger equation, whose solutions are summed to obtain the nucleon-nucleus scattering observables. Results: We calculate elastic scattering observables for $^4$He, $^6$He, $^8$He, $^{12}$C, and $^{16}$O in the energy regime between 100 and 200 MeV projectile kinetic energy, and compare to available data. We also explore the extension down to about 70 MeV, and study the effect of ignoring the spin of the struck nucleon in the nucleus. Conclusions: In our calculations we contrast elastic scattering off closed-shell and open-shell nuclei. We find that for closed-shell nuclei the approximation of ignoring the spin of the struck target nucleon is excellent. We only see effects of the spin of the struck target nucleon when considering $^6$He and $^8$He, which are nuclei with a $N/Z$ ratio larger than 1.
The theory of the elastic scattering of a nucleon from a nucleus is presented in the form of a Spectator Expansion of the optical potential. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of the free projectile$,-,$nucleus propagator when the coupling of the struck target nucleon to the residual target must be taken into consideration. First order calculations within this framework are shown for neutron total cross-sections and for proton scattering for a number of target nuclides at a variety of energies. The calculated values of these observables are in very good agreement with measurement.