Interplay of structure and dynamics in the fusion of neutron-rich light and mid-mass nuclei near the barrier

Romualdo deSouza (Indiana University, USA)

Fusion of two nuclei is a fascinating process in which two strongly-interacting quantum systems merge, lose their individual identity, and assume a new identity. It is a process of interest to the fields of both nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics. As nuclei become neutron-rich their ground-state nuclear structure changes. How this change in structure influences nuclear fusion is still an open question. Investigation of fusion for an isotopic chain provides a means to address this topic in a systematic fashion. The Indiana University group has developed two complementary techniques to enable measurement of the fusion excitation function with low-intensity radioactive beams. Both techniques utilize the direct detection of fusion products to identify fusion.  Using these techniques we have investigated the fusion of ^{16,17,18,19,20}O + ¹²C and ^39,41,45,47K and ^36,44Ar + ²⁸Si at near barrier energies. In addition to the observation of trends with increasing neutron number the experimental results will be compared to the predictions of time-dependent Hartree-Fock and coupled-channels calculations.