Study of diffractive and refractive structure in the elastic 16O+16O scattering at incident energies ranging from 124 to 1120 MeV

The experimental data on elastic 16O+16O scattering at incident energies ranging from 124 to 1120 MeV have been analyzed within the standard optical model (OM), using either the phenomenological (Woods-Saxon squared) potential or that calculated within the double-folding model for the real part of the optical potential. Structure of the elastic cross sections at smallest scattering angles was found to be of a pure diffractive nature, which enabled a consistent check of the absolute normalization of the elastic data under study. The OM analysis shows unambiguously the evolution of the refractive scattering pattern in the 16O+16O system over this energy range. The large angle region of the data is dominated by the refractive far-side scattering. The oscillating Airy structure can be consistently described by a set of optical potentials with the real part given by the folding model and a weak absorptive imaginary potential