Sensitivity of phase shifts to the optical potentials in heavy ion scattering

We formulate a procedure implicit in the Jost function formulation of the potential scattering in order to investigate the potential ambiguities occurring in two body scattering by a complex potential. The connection between this method and the distorted-wave Born approximation formalism is pointed out. We apply this method to study the potential ambiguities known to exist in heavy ion scattering by taking 18O+ 58Ni, α+ 27Al, and 6Li+ 12C for typical illustrative calculations. Our calculations trace the origin of the potential ambiguities to the Coulomb potential and sizes and masses of the colliding nuclei. The regions of configuration space which contribute strongly to the partial wave S matrix are illustrated graphically