Reply to Baur's and Bertulani's Comment

Abstract

Shortcomings of a momentum-space treatment of strong absorption, as discussed in the previous Comment [nucl-th/9611025], are only of concern at low projectile energies, $\gamma$< 1.5. At intermediate and high energies, for which the quantum-mechanical equivalent-photon spectrum is intended, the quantum-mechanical cross sections are reduced relative to the semi-classical results whether one treats strong effects via a momentum-space or an impact-parameter (spatial) cut-off. At these energies the origin of the discrepancy between the predictions of full quantuym-mechanical and the semi-classical calulations cannot be traced to differences in the treatment of strong-interaction effects. Rather, they arise from quantum effects neglected in the semi-classical calculations.