On the effective potential in deuteron elastic scattering

The effective deuteron-target interaction has been investigated by measurements of the elastic scattering at 23 MeV and 52 MeV and their analysis in terms of the model-unrestricted Fourier-Bessel concept. We find small errors bands for the extracted potentials even at short distances confirming earlier findings on a comparatively high optical transparency of deuteron scattering. The central potentials resulting from the analysis are compared to folding calculations. The deduced polarization potentials due to virtual breakup agree qualitatively with theoretical predictions. The effective real central potential is found to be much less diffuse than folding predicts pointing to a very small effective size of deuterons inside the target nucleus. Incorporating this feature in the folding concept gives a strikingly good description of the empirical potential shapes. The consequences of this finding onto non-central potentials are discussed briefly