Multiple scattering in nuclear rearrangement reactions at intermediate energies

The multiple scattering mechanism is very important in the transfer of the large momenta involved in nuclear rearrangement reactions at intermediate energies, so that the main contribution to the reaction cross section comes from the small momentum components of the nuclear wavefunction. In particular, for p-⁴He elastic scattering around 1 GeV, the contribution of the small momentum components of the nuclear wavefunction is able to reproduce the experimental angular distribution out to the backward direction. The multiple scattering mechanism is especially important in ⁴He(p,d)³He reactions around 800 MeV. In this case, collisions involving two nucleons of the target nucleus are dominant. The contribution due to triple collisions is also important. The contribution due to collisions with all four target nucleons is negligible in the forward direction but it is sizeable at large angles.