Sub-barrier fusion of intermediate and heavy nuclear systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a two-barrier potential model to accurately describe low-energy nuclear fusion cross sections, especially at sub-barrier energies, outperforming simpler models.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that a two-barrier potential model effectively captures fusion cross sections across various nuclei and energies, especially at sub-barrier energies.

Findings

Two-barrier model fits experimental data well.

Barrier positions are nearly independent of nuclear masses.

Simple single-barrier models are insufficient for accurate descriptions.

Abstract

A potential model to describe the total cross section of nuclear fusion reactions at low energies is proposed. It is shown that within an approach with a simple, single barrier potential a satisfactory description of data is hindered, while with models with more complex interactions, e.g., with two-barrier potentials, a good description of data can be achieved in a large interval of colliding nuclei and center of mass energies. In particular, the two-barrier model allows to describe data at low, sub-barrier energies where data exhibits a steep falloff of the cross section. It is also shown that the position of the two barriers is almost independent up on masses of colliding nuclei. Comparison with available experimental data is presented as well.