Analysis of the elastic scattering cross-sections within the halo and non-halo configurations of 8 B and 11 Be projectiles

Abstract The optical model (OM) formalism inherently omits the structural properties of weakly bound nuclei, owing to its restriction to an effective two-body description. By assuming the halo and non-halo configurations of 8B and 11Be projectiles on two quite different mass targets, 64Zn and 208Pb, we introduce an approach that explicitly incorporates the ground-state structure of a weakly bound projectile by embedding its wave function into the projectile-target nuclear potential through a double-folding formalism. The resulting potential successfully reproduces the suppression of the Coulomb-nuclear interference peak observed in elastic scattering, which is commonly attributed to coupling with breakup channels. Moreover, incorporating the halo structure into the OM significantly improves the agreement with experimental elastic-scattering data. These results for weakly bound nuclei demonstrate that an accurate description of elastic scattering requires an OM that explicitly accounts for the projectile's structure.