Elastic 16O16O scattering at E(16O) = 350 MeV and new method for a model-independent determination of the scattering matrix

A new approach that can be used to extract the scattering matrix S(l) as a complex-valued function of the orbital angular momentum l directly from experimental data on elastic nucleus-nucleus scattering at intermediate energies without resort to additional model assumptions is developed on the basis of the evolutionary algorithm. Owing to the fact that the behavior of the derivatives of S(l) is automatically monitored within this approach, the scattering matrix obtained for 16O16O interaction at an energy of 350 MeV is determined by its absolute value and the nuclear phase shift, which are smooth monotonic functions of the orbital angular momentum. Moreover, the result involves no distortions, the form of the quantum deflection function being typical of the nuclear-rainbow pattern. It is shown that the ultimate form of S(l) is independent of input representations of the scattering matrix, which were usually taken on the basis of various phenomenological models