Disappearance of Mott oscillations in sub-barrier elastic scattering of identical heavy ions and the nuclear interaction

Abstract

We investigate the possible disappearance of Mott oscillations in the scattering of bosonic nuclei at sub-barrier energies. This effect is universal and happens at a critical value of the Sommerfeld parameter. It is also found that the inclusion of the short-range nuclear interaction has a profound influence on this phenomenon. Thus we suggest that the study of this lack of Mott oscillation, which we call, ``transverse isotropy" is a potentially useful mean to study the nuclear interaction.