Role of anharmonicities and non-linearities in heavy ion collisions. A   microscopic approach
  Using a microscopic approach beyond RPA to treat anharmonicities, we mix two-phonon states among themselves and with one-phonon states. We also introduce non-linear terms in the external field. These non-linear terms and the anharmonicities are not taken into account in the "standard" multiphonon picture. Within this framework we calculate Coulomb excitation of 208Pb and 40Ca by a 208Pb nucleus at 641 and 1000MeV/A. We show with different examples the importance of the non-linearities and anharmonicities for the excitation cross section. We find an increase of 10 % for 208Pb and 20 % for 40Ca of the excitation cross section corresponding to the energy region of the double giant dipole resonance with respect to the "standard" calculation. We also find important effects in the low energy region. The predicted cross section in the DGDR region is found to be rather close to the experimental observation. 
E.G. Lanza, M.V. Andres, F. Catara, Ph. Chomaz and C. Volpe