Elastic proton transfer in the scattering of 15N + 16O near the Coulomb barrier

Abstract

The present work presents a detailed analysis of angular distribution data for the ¹⁵N + ¹⁶O system in the energy range E_c.m. = 10.3–20.6 MeV that are characterized by pronounced increases in cross sections at large angles > 130°. These data sets allow for the energy dependence of elastic scattering potentials and elastic proton transfer to be explored from energies just below the Coulomb barrier to energies about 1.5 times its value. For this purpose, we have implemented various forms, both phenomenological and microscopic, for the interaction potentials. An elastic proton transfer amplitude for the ¹⁶O → p + ¹⁵N configuration was added to the scattering analysis through DWBA calculations. The extracted amplitudes were roughly energy and optical model form independent and yielded a good description of the enhanced large angle cross sections. These amplitudes when then converted to ¹⁶O → p + ¹⁵N spectroscopic factors (SF), are in good agreement with previously reported light ion reaction ones. Possible channel coupling effects on the large angle cross sections that included excitation of ¹⁶O and transfer to excited ¹⁵N states were carried out through Coupled Reaction Channels (CRC) calculations and found to be small.