What kind of optical model potentials should be used for deuteron stripping reactions?

This paper presents the results of a study that compares CTOM, a microscopic optical model potential (OMP), which is an optical model co-created by the China Nuclear Data Center & Tuebingen University, to CH89, which is a typical phenomenological OMP. The respective OMPs were tested by applying them to the modelling of nucleon elastic scattering and (d, p) transfer reactions involving ¹⁴C, ³⁶S, and ⁵⁸Ni targets at both low and relatively high energies. The results demonstrated that although both potentials successfully accounted for the angular distributions of both the elastic scattering and transfer cross sections, the absolute values of the transfer cross sections calculated using CTOM were approximately 25% larger than those calculated using CH89. This increased transfer cross sections allowed CTOM to produce single particle strength reduction factors for the three reactions that were consistent with those extracted from (e, e′ p) reactions as well as with more recent (p, 2p) and (p, pn) reactions. Notch tests suggested that nucleon elastic scattering and transfer reactions are sensitive to different regions of the OMP; accordingly, phenomenological OMPs, which are constrained only by elastic scattering cross sections, may not be sufficient for nucleon transfer reactions. Therefore, we suggest that microscopic OMPs, which reflect more theoretical considerations, should be preferred over phenomenological ones in calculations of direct nuclear reactions.