In heavy-ion collisions and scatterings of $\alpha$ particles from nuclei one encounters a deflection function which has a minimum at a small positive angle. We show that the corresponding scattering amplitude has an angular distribution which behaves as if a forward glory scattering were taking place. This phenomenon can be interpreted semiclassically as the interference between the near- and far-side components in the dark-side of a rainbow scattering.

• Received 9 January 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1809