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Detailed comparisons are made between results of calculations for intermediate energy nucleon--208Pb scattering using optical potentials obtained from Dirac phenomenology and a microscopic Schrodinger model. The two approaches yield quite similar results for all of the observables with each projectile, including spin observables, suggesting the two models are physically equivalent. A new phenomenon in the analyzing power is confirmed in the results for 100 MeV scattering.

We present a reliable double-folding (DF) model for $^{4}$He-nucleus scattering, using the Melbourne $g$-matrix nucleon-nucleon interaction that explains nucleon-nucleus scattering with no adjustable parameter. In the DF model, only the target density is taken as the local density in the Melbourne $g$-matrix. For $^{4}$He elastic scattering from $^{58}$Ni and $^{208}$Pb targets in a wide range of incident energies from 20~MeV/nucleon to 200~MeV/nucleon, the DF model with the target-density approximation (TDA) yields much better agreement with the experimental data than the usual DF model with the frozen-density approximation in which the sum of projectile and target densities is taken as the local density. We also discuss the relation between the DF model with the TDA and the conventional folding model in which the nucleon-nucleus potential is folded with the $^{4}$He density.

Nucleon self-energies for 40Ca, 48Ca, 60Ca isotopes are generated with the microscopic Faddeev-random-phase approximation (FRPA). These self-energies are compared with potentials from the dispersive optical model (DOM) that were obtained from fitting elastic-scattering and bound-state data for 40Ca and 48Ca. The \textit{ab initio} FRPA is capable of explaining many features of the empirical DOM potentials including their nucleon asymmetry dependence. The comparison furthermore provides several suggestions to improve the functional form of the DOM potentials, including among others the exploration of parity and angular momentum dependence. The non-locality of the FRPA imaginary self-energy, illustrated by a substantial orbital angular momentum dependence, suggests that future DOM fits should consider this feature explicitly. The roles of the nucleon-nucleon tensor force and charge-exchange component in generating the asymmetry dependence of the FPRA self-energies are explored. The global features of the FRPA self-energies are not strongly dependent on the choice of realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction.

Programable spatial light modulators (SLMs) have significantly advanced the configurable optical trapping of particles. Typically, these devices are utilized in the Fourier plane of an optical system, but direct imaging of an amplitude pattern can potentially result in increased simplicity and computational speed. Here we demonstrate high-resolution direct imaging of a digital micromirror device (DMD) at high numerical apertures (NA), which we apply to the optical trapping of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We utilise a (1200 x 1920) pixel DMD and commercially available 0.45 NA microscope objectives, finding that atoms confined in a hybrid optical/magnetic or all-optical potential can be patterned using repulsive blue-detuned (532 nm) light with 630(10) nm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) resolution, within 5% of the diffraction limit. The result is near arbitrary control of the density the BEC without the need for expensive custom optics. We also introduce the technique of time-averaged DMD potentials, demonstrating the ability to produce multiple grayscale levels with minimal heating of the atomic cloud, by utilising the high switching speed (20 kHz maximum) of the DMD. These techniques will enable the realization and control of diverse optical potentials for superfluid dynamics and atomtronics applications with quantum gases. The performance of this system in a direct imaging configuration has wider application for optical trapping at non-trivial NAs.

The differential cross section and the analyzing power are calculated for elastic scattering of $^6$He from a proton target using a microscopic folding optical potential, in which the $^6$He nucleus is described in terms of a $^4$He-core with two additional neutrons in the valence p-shell. In contrast to previous work of that nature, all contributions from the interaction of the valence neutrons with the target protons are taken into account.

Microscopic optical potentials for nucleon-nucleus (NA) scattering obtained from the full folding of the effective g matrices, solutions of the Bruckner-Bethe-Goldstone equation, with the densities of the target, are applied to the case of neutron-nucleus scattering. Given that the optical potentials are specified in all two-body angular momentum, spin and isospin channels available to the NA scattering, the only difference in this model description of proton and neutron scattering observables for a given nucleus is in the inclusion of the Coulomb interaction. A priori microscopic optical model predictions for neutron and proton elastic scattering are compared with results from a phenomenological optical model and with data. New measurements are recommended to reduce discrepancies in the existing database, and to differentiate between different theoretical predictions.