Modern approaches to optical potentials

Abstract: This chapter presents an overview of the optical model description of nucleon-nucleus scattering and reactions based on fundamental nuclear two-body and many-body forces. The chapter begins with a historical review followed by a discussion of several commonly used theoretical techniques for deriving nucleon-nucleus optical model potentials that account for antisymmetry, Pauli blocking, and multiple scattering. This is followed by a summary of current efforts to derive microscopic nuclear forces consistent with the fundamental theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics, and the use of such interactions in the construction of microscopic optical potentials. The chapter will also outline the dispersive optical potential approach, which despite being primarily phenomenological, has its origins in formal Green's function theory. Finally, the results from modern optical potentials will be benchmarked to experimental data.