A UNIFIED APPROACH TO THE DESCRIPTION OF NUCLEAR REACTIONS AND STRUCTURE
Abstract: The era of FRIB will further clarify that one can never unambiguously extract structure information without a proper reaction description when strongly interacting probes are involved. An outline of an ambitious plan to tackle this issue in a consistent manner will be presented with emphasis on the dispersive optical model (DOM) that treats the structure and reaction domain simultaneously at least for single proton or neutron propagation. Apart from upgrading this framework to include nonlocality of the potentials and the treatment of pairing open-shell nuclei, attention will be given to an extension of this approach involving the deuteron in the initial or final state. A fresh analysis of the (e,eâp) reaction indicates that a consistent approach is indeed possible. Predictive features of the DOM include the neutron skin with results for 48Ca and (preliminary) 208Pb. The efficacy of this approach is further illustrated by considering the current state of the art of the (d,p) and (p,d) reaction. Additional insights into where binding is generated in the nucleus are discussed with future applications to asymmetric nuclei.
