The role of rainbow refraction in heavy ion elastic scattering

Description

The energy dependence of both the strong absorption radius, Rsa, and the rainbow distance, Rr, in the elastic scattering of a dozen pairs of heavy ions is studied. Rsa decreases with energy linearly in E−13 while Rr increases linearly in E−32. The rainbow effect appears to prevail (Rr > Rsa) above a certain energy which is proportional to the product Z1Z2.

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