On the optical-potential deformation in heavy-ion inelastic scattering

The descriptions of heavy-ion inelastic scattering given by the folding model and phenomenological potentials require different degrees of deformation of the optical potential. This is because the rule of equal normalised multipole moments of the optical potential and the nucleon density distribution, imposed by the folding model, conflicts with the rule of equal deformation lengths borne out by analyses with Woods-Saxon potentials. It is shown, in an example of inelastic scattering of heavy ions from deformed nuclei in the region of strong Coulomb-nuclear interference, that the double-folding model description of the experimental data is as good as any description with deformed Woods-Saxon potentials. Thus neither of the two different rules for deforming the optical potential is a universal prescription since they only apply to specific classes of potentials. (author)