Predictive phenomenological optical potentials through a unified description of scattering and structure

Optical model potentials (OMPs) provide a computationally tractable description of the interaction of nuclei, which is of great importance for basic and applied studies related to nuclear physics. A dispersive OMP enforces the causality principle and provides a meaningful, unified description for scattering and bound-state properties [1,2]. This improves the model accuracy and predictive power. We are working to advance the state of the art for phenomenological nucleon-nucleus OMPs, by developing a dispersive model that is:

- trained on both scattering and bound-state data;

- trained on a wide area of the nuclear chart (global), including unstable systems;

- uncertainty quantified, through a Bayesian approach that attempts to learn model and data uncertainties [3].

I will discuss the project status and results.

[1] W. H. Dickhoff and R. J. Charity. Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 105, 252 (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.ppnp.2018.11.002.

[2] B. Morillon et al. Phys. Rev. C 109, 044611 (2024). DOI:10.1103/PhysRevC.109.044611.

[3] C. D. Pruitt et al. Phys. Rev. C 107, 014602 (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC. 107.014602.