Heavy-ion fusion reactions below the Coulomb barrier : structure effects and astrophysics implications
by
IPHC Strasbourg, Prof.Sandrine Courtin
→
Europe/Stockholm
seminar room A3:1003
seminar room A3:1003
Description
Fusion is the dominant mechanism in the collisions of heavy-ions at nuclear physics energies. At low energy, fusion occurs via tunneling through the Coulomb barrier. The strong sensitivity of the sub-barrier fusion probability to the structure of the colliding nuclei will be presented as well as recent results on the influence of particle transfer channels on the fusion cross-sections in medium mass systems like Ca+Ca, Ni+Ni and Ca+Ni.
At extreme sub-barrier energies, a surprising dependence of the process on fundamental properties of nuclear matter is found, such as its incompressibility. In this energy region, for lighter systems, nuclear fusion is strongly connected to astrophysics, as it is an essential step in the synthesis of the chemical elements in stars. In this context, we will discuss experimental studies of the C+O and C+C systems.
