PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO DEEPLY INELASTIC-COLLISIONS

A phenomenological approach to deeply inelastic collisions between heavy ions is suggested. The average reaction amplitude is parametrized in a simple form which emphasizes the strong localization of this process in the angular-momentum space, between the initial and grazing angular momenta. The energy is dissipated by radial friction. The energy loss is related to the lifetime of the intermediate two-nucleus complex. The phase of the reaction amplitude is determined by requiring that the angular distributions are peaked at the angles predicted by previous classical calculations. The resulting expression is used to study the angular distribution of the products of interaction of 288 MeV40Ar with232Th. Seventeen curves are satisfactorily described in terms of only four parameters. The absolute values of the experimental crosssections are used to determine the level density of the final states. The resulting level density function is similar to that obtained from analyses of low-energy neutron data. © 1979 Società Italiana di Fisica.