Collisions of light nuclei.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is the investigation of mathematical methods for treating collisions of light nuclei. Our understanding of nuclear forces is derived largely from the study of simple nuclear systems. Bound nuclei consisting of two to four particles have been theoretically treated with considerable accuracy and yielded many valuable results. Another important source of information are nuclear collisions, However, up to the present, only two particle collisions have been theoretically treated in a systematic and reliable manner. This thesis is concerned with collisions involving any number of nucleons. The problem is to calculate the scattering properties of nuclei from assumed nuclear interactions. These theoretical results can then be checked against experimental data, thus providing a test for the validity of the interactions which were postulated. As the wave function of a nuclear n - body system extends over 3n dimensions and is highly irregular, on account of the great strength of nuclear forces, one cannot hope to determine it with great exactitude for systems involving more than two particles.