Nuclear matter parameters and optical model analysis of proton elastic scattering on the doubly magic nucleus 40Ca

Abstract Owing to its doubly magic nature having equal numbers of protons and neutrons, the 40 Ca nuclear scattering can be successfully described by the optical model that assumes a spherical nuclear potential. Therefore, optical model analysis was employed to calculate the elastic scattering cross section for p + 40 Ca interaction at energies from 9 to 22 MeV as well as the polarization at energies from 10 to 18.2 MeV. New optical model parameters (OMPs) were proposed based on the best fitting to experimental data. It is found that the best fit OMPs depend on the energy by smooth relationships. The results were compared with other OMPs sets regarding their chi square values ( χ 2 ). The obtained OMP's set was used to calculate the volume integral of the potentials and the root mean square (rms) value of nuclear matter radius of 40 Ca. In addition, 40 Ca bulk nuclear matter properties were discussed utilizing both the obtained rms radius and the Thomas–Fermi rms radius calculated using spherical Hartree–Fock formalism employing Skyrme type nucleon–nucleon force. The nuclear scattering SCAT2000 FORTRAN code was used for the optical model analysis.