Sub-barrier fusion excitation function data and energy dependent Woods–Saxon potential

Abstract

This paper analyzed the role of intrinsic degrees of freedom of colliding nuclei in the enhancement of sub-barrier fusion cross-section data of various heavy ion fusion reactions. The influences of inelastic surface vibrations of colliding pairs are found to be dominant and their couplings result in the significantly larger fusion enhancement over the predictions of the one dimensional barrier penetration model at sub-barrier energies. The theoretical calculations are performed by using energy dependent Woods–Saxon potential model (EDWSP model) in conjunction with the one dimensional Wong formula. The effects of dominant intrinsic channels are entertained within framework of the coupled channel calculations obtained by using the code CCFULL. It is quite interesting to note that the energy dependence in Woods–Saxon potential simulates the effects of inelastic surface vibrational states of reactants wherein significantly larger value of diffuseness parameter ranging from a = 0.85fm to a = 0.95fm is required to address the observed fusion excitation function data of the various heavy ion fusion reactions.