Effects of shape and transfer degrees of freedom on sub-barrier fusion

Abstract

Two studies of near and sub-barrier fusion have been carried out. In the first of these, fusion excitation functions and barrier distributions have been measured for 40Ca incident on prolate 192Os and oblate 194Pt. The influence of the shape of the target nucleus and the effect of a very positive Q-value transfer channel on the excitation functions and barrier distributions has been determined. A second study involves fusion measurements for 40Ca on a series of Ti isotopes. This series was chosen because the target deformation and transfer Q-value effects favour opposite ends of the isotopic series, in contrast to the behaviour for the well studied Sm isotopic series. The relative importance of shape and transfer channels in this isotopic series will be discussed. We will also present some comparisons of barrier distributions obtained from `elastic' excitation functions and from fusion excitation functions.