Multistep scattering in the 160 MeV208Pb(α, α′) reaction

New experimental data has been obtained for the208Pb(α, α′) reaction induced by 160 MeV alpha particles, for inelastic scattering to forward angles. We use these data to investigate the applicability of the multistep scattering theory of Feshbach, Kerman, and Koonin for describing this reaction. The mechanism we study, following the work of Gadioli et al. [1], is of the incident alpha particle remaining intact throughout the scattering process, exciting nucleon particle-hole pairs through multistep process. We conclude that this mechanism, combined with compound nucleus decay at low emission energies, can account for much of the observed data. However, there are indications that other processes also contribute at energies above the compound nucleus emission regime, and we outline future theoretical analyses that are needed.