Suppression of the nuclear rainbow in the inelastic nucleus–nucleus scattering

The nuclear rainbow observed in the elastic $$\alpha $$ -nucleus and light heavy-ion scattering is proven to be due refraction of wave by a deep, attractive real optical potential. pattern, established as broad oscillation Airy minima cross section, originates from an interference refracted far-side amplitudes. It natural expect similar pattern also inelastic nucleus–nucleus system that exhibits pronounced channel. Although some feature was experiment, measured sections exhibit much weaker where suppressed smeared out. To investigate this effect, novel method near-far decomposition amplitude proposed explicitly reveal coupled partial-wave contributions section. Using new method, our channel analysis $$^{12}$$ C + $$^{16}$$ O at refractive energies shows unambiguously suppression section caused destructive partial waves different multipoles. However, remains strongly these cases, dominant medium large angles like scattering.