ON THE CLUSTER-MODEL DESCRIPTION OF COLLISIONS

Abstract

With simple cluster wave functions describing the colliding nuclei, the resonating-group method allows treating collisions realistically with full account of antisymmetrization and of good quantum numbers. The introduction of generator coordinates leads to a striking simplification by allowing the systematic use of Slater determinants. Reactions involving bound and scattering states simultaneously, such as radiative-capture reactions in nuclear astrophysics, are a particularly rich field of applications. In recent years, the microscopic cluster model has evolved to the study of three-body scattering which appears as a final state in a number of processes. The challenge is now to extend microscopic descriptions of collisions to ab initio calculations with realistic forces.