The proximity approximation for the absorptive heavy-ion potential

The known proximity force approximation for the real part of the optical potential for two nuclei of radii R1 and R2 at distance R is extended to its imaginary part V I , calculated in the local nuclear matter approach. In this approximation V I /[R 1 R 2 / (R 1 + R 2 )] is a universal function of R−R1−R2 and energy. This scaling law is tested in the frivolous model, and also compared with recent empirical result for V I.