Dynamical Interplay of Fusion and Fission in Low Energy Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions

Abstract

Fission angular distributions and mass-distributions following heavy-ion fusion reactions have been measured for both spherical and statically deformed target nuclei. They show that for statically deformed nuclei, fusion barriers of different energies, corresponding to different geometrical configurations, strongly influence the subsequent evolution of the composite system, for both quasi-fission and fast-fission. In contrast, for spherical vibrational nuclei, barriers of different energy do not appear to significantly influence the subsequent fission process. This may be understood in terms of the different frequencies of the collective rotational and vibrational modes of the colliding nuclei excited during fusion.