Non-monotonic potentials and vector analyzing powers of ^6,7 Li scattering by ¹² C, ²⁶ Mg, ⁵⁸ Ni, and ¹²⁰ Sn

The data on the elastic scattering cross-section (CS) and vector analyzing power (VAP) of 6,7Li incident on 12C , 26Mg, 58Ni and 120Sn nuclei are analyzed in terms of an optical model (OM) potential, the real part of which is generated from a realistic two-nucleon interaction using the energy-density functional (EDF) formalism. The EDF-generated real part of the potential is non-monotonic (NM) in nature. This NM real potential part, without any renormalization, along with an empirically determined imaginary part and spin-orbit potential, embodying the underlying physics of projectile excitation, can successfully account for both CS and VAP data in all four cases. This investigation, for the first time, using the simple OM analysis accounts well for the opposite signs of the VAP data of elastically scattered 6,7Li by 58Ni at Elab≈20 MeV and by 120Sn at Elab=44 MeV. The ramification of successfully describing the data by the EDF-generated potential to the equation of state of nuclear matter is discussed.