New measurement of the refractive, elastic<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow/><mml:mrow><mml:mn>16</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>12</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">C</mml:mi></mml:math>scattering at 132, 170, 200, 230, and 260 MeV incident energies

For the first time, differential cross section of the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}{+}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ elastic scattering at ${E}_{\mathrm{lab}}=170,$ 200, 230, and 260 MeV has been measured over a wide angular range which covers both diffractive and refractive regions. In addition, the recent data at 132 MeV for this system have been remeasured with much better statistics. A well developed rainbow structure has been observed, where up to three Airy minima could be identified in each measured angular distribution. The optical model analysis of these data was done using the conventional Woods-Saxon shape for the optical potential as well as that given by the folding model. The Airy systematics enabled us to suggest a realistic family of the optical potential for the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}{+}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ system, which consistently describes the new data as well as the data measured earlier at incident energies of 608 and 1503 MeV. Our results show that the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}{+}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ system is a very suitable heavy-ion combination for the study of refractive phenomena, which can give important information on the nucleus-nucleus potential at small distances.