Correlated scattering corrections to eikonal few-body models - art. no. 064608

A basic assumption which underpins recent applications of eikonal few-body models to nuclear scattering and nuclear reactions is that of the addition of the constituent scattering phases. We investigate the accuracy of this a ssumption in the case of the elastic scattering of He-8, treated as a five- constituent (alpha +4n) system, from a light target nucleus at energies of 10's of MeV/nucleon. To do so we calculate Feshbach's correlated scattering or overlapping potential contributions to the eikonal model phase shifts i n this many-body case. We find that even for He-8, with ten contributing pa ir-wise potential overlaps, these terms introduce corrections that are smal l in comparison with available experimental precision and also compared to those phase additive noneikonal corrections which arise from the use of an improved description of the phase shifts for each of the constituent-target subsystems within the few-body model.