  We present a determination of optical potentials for $^4$He-target collisions
using the double-folding method. We use chiral effective field theory
nucleon-nucleon interactions at next-to-next-to-leading order combined with
state-of-the-art nucleonic densities. The imaginary part of the optical
potential is obtained from the real double-folding interaction either through a
proportionality constant or applying Kramers-Kronig dispersion relations. With
these potentials, we compute the elastic scattering of $^4$He off various
targets, from $^4$He to $^{120}$Sn. We study the sensitivity of our predicted
cross sections to the choice of nucleon-nucleon interactions and nuclear
densities. Very good agreement is obtained with existing elastic-scattering
data for $^4$He energies between 100 and 400 MeV.

Nuclear Theory