Exploring the potential of the Sao Paulo potential

Recent development of an imaginary potential based on the Sao Paulo potential (SPP) is briefly presented. The SPP is theoretically founded on the Pauli non-locality, which arises from quantum exchange effects. Further developments of the model in order to describe weakly bound systems (e.g. 7Li + 120Sn) are discussed and compared to experimental data. New preliminary data on the 18O + 110Pd transitional system are also presented and apparent similarities to the weakly bound case are commented. It appears that the description of various low-energy nuclear reactions can be successfully accomplished with a coupled channels calculation using an optical model with both real and imaginary parts taken as proportional to the SPP. The procedure is free of parameter adjustments and therefore should have considerable predictive power. For weakly bound and transitional nuclei it appears that a reduction of the real potential by a factor of 0.6 is necessary for consistency with experimental results