Direct nuclear Reactions

Book excerpt: Direct Nuclear Reactions deals with the theory of direct nuclear reactions, their microscopic aspects, and their effect on the motions of the individual nucleons. The principal results of the theory are described, with emphasis on the approximations involved to understand how well the theory can be expected to hold under specific experimental conditions. Applications to the analysis of experiments are also considered. This book consists of 19 chapters and begins by explaining the difference between direct and compound nuclear reactions. The reader is then introduced to the theory of plane waves, some results of scattering theory, and the phenomenological optical potential. The following chapters focus on form factors and their nuclear structure content; the basis of the optical potential as an effective interaction; reactions such as inelastic single- and two-nucleon transfer reactions; the effect of nuclear correlations; and the role of multiple-step reactions. The theory of inelastic scattering and the relationship between the effective and free interactions are also discussed, along with reactions between heavy ions and the polarizability of nuclear wave functions during a heavy-ion reaction. This monograph will be of interest to nuclear physicists.