QUANTUM-MECHANICAL EQUIVALENT-PHOTON SPECTRUM FOR HEAVY-ION PHYSICS -REPLY

Shortcomings of a momentum-space treatment of strong absorption, as di scussed in the preceding Comment, are only of concern at low projectil e energies, gamma<1.5. At intermediate and high energies, for which th e quantum-mechanical equivalent-photon spectrum is intended, the quant um-mechanical cross sections are reduced relative to the semiclassical results whether one treats Strong effects via a momentum-space or an impact-parameter (spatial) cutoff. At these energies the origin of-the discrepancy between the predictions of fully quantum-mechanical and t he semiclassical calculations cannot be traced to differences in the t reatment of strong-interaction effects. Rather, they arise from quantu m effects neglected in the semiclassical calculations.