Investigating the effect of entrance channel mass asymmetry on fusion reactions using the Skyrme energy density formalism

Abstract

In the present investigations, the fusion cross-sections for the formation of 200Pb compound nucleus (CN) using 16O + 184 W, 30Si + 170Er, and 40Ar + 160Gd nuclear reactions at energies above the Coulomb barrier were calculated to understand the effect of entrance channel mass asymmetry (α) on the fusion reactions; the Skyrme energy density formalism (SEDF) was used for this calculation. The SEDF uses the Hartree–Fock–Bogolyubov (HFB) computational program with Skyrme forces such as SkM*, SLy4, and SLy5 to obtain the nucleus-nucleus potential parameters for the above reactions. Using the SEDF model with SkM*, SLy4, and SLy5 interaction forces, the theoretical fusion cross-sections were determined above the barrier energy and compared with the available experimental fusion cross-sections. The results show a close agreement between the theoretical and experimental values for all selected systems at energies well above the barrier. However, near the barrier energies, the theoretical values were observed to be higher than the experimental values.