The deformation and orientation effect on reaction cross section with deformed targets

The reaction cross section (σR) for a deformed target nucleus and spherical projectile is calculated using the optical-limit approximation of the Glauber-Sitenko theory. A method is presented to include both the density-dependent NN interaction and the higher order deformations of the target nucleus in the collision process. We studied both the orientation and the deformation dependence of σR within the energy range 30–900 MeV/A. We found that the orientation of the heavy target nucleus (A ≥ 120) can produce a difference in the calculated σR up to 30%. The averaged σR over all directions of the symmetry axis of the deformed nucleus differs by less than 1% compared with σR calculated for a spherical target with the same rms matter radius as the deformed nucleus. For certain orientation, it was found that σR is highly dependent on the hexadecapole deformation. The orientation-averaged cross sections show almost no variation with either the sign or the value of the hexadecapole deformation. We compared the average cross section with the experimental data for several mass numbers; fair agreement is obtained.