Heavy ion peripheral collisions at relativistic energies: Theory of giant quadrupole excitation

The theory of excitation of the giant quadrupole resonance in E/Q=0.5--2.1 GeV heavy ion collisions is studied. Karol's soft spheres model based on nucleon-nucleon cross sections is generalized to deal with collective excitations in deformed nuclei. The giant quadrupole resonance cross sections are calculated in several cases. The results are shown to be in close agreement with the prediction of Blair's simple diffraction model except for excitation in the light nuclei ¹²C and ¹⁶O. Comparison with ¹⁶O fragmentation yield data is made.