On unitarity of the particle–hole dispersive optical model

For the recently developed particle–hole dispersive optical model, weak violations of unitarity due to a phenomenological description of the spreading effect are considered. Methods for unitarity restoration are proposed and implemented for the 208Pb nucleus in the description of the energy-averaged isoscalar monopole double transition density and strength functions in a wide excitation energy interval that includes the isoscalar giant monopole resonance and its overtone. To illustrate abilities of the model, direct neutron decay of the mentioned giant resonance is also considered.