Nuclear rainbow in scattering and reactions and nucleus-nucleus interaction at small distances

A review of recent experiments on the study of the nuclear rainbow phenomenon in scattering and some reactions induced by light heavy ions is given. It includes (i) the study of the differential cross sections of the 16O + 12C elastic scattering at seven 16O energies between 130 and 281 MeV; (ii) finding of the phenomenological potential deeper than that of folding model; (iii) the first data on 16O + 14C elastic scattering; (iv) dispersion relation analysis of the obtained data and observation of abnormal nuclear dispersion; and (v) use of the charge-exchange 14C(6Li,6He)14N reaction to search for pion-condensation effects.