AN OPTICAL-MODEL FOR COMPOSITE NUCLEAR-SCATTERING

An effective potential operator is used in high energy context to derive an approximate one-body Schroedinger equation by use of the closure approximation. The equivalent one-body equation is reduced to a set of coupled-channel equations which relates the entrance channel to the final excited states of the projectile and target. A Schroedinger equation for the coherent elastic amplitude is extracted from the coupled equations. Total and absorption cross sections are then derived on the basis of the Eikonal approximation and the assumption that the coherent scattering dominates the forward scattered amplitude. An experimental method for choosing between the Glauber approximation and the theory presented here is suggested.