Investigating multi-channel quantum tunneling in heavy-ion fusion reactions with Bayesian spectral deconvolution

TL;DR

This paper applies Bayesian spectral deconvolution to analyze fusion barrier distributions in heavy-ion fusion reactions, revealing multiple barriers and demonstrating the method's effectiveness in interpreting experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian approach to simultaneously determine barrier parameters and count, providing new insights into multi-channel quantum tunneling in nuclear fusion.

Findings

Fusion barrier distribution for $^{16}$O+$^{144}$Sm is best explained by three barriers.

The Bayesian method effectively distinguishes multiple barriers from experimental data.

Analysis enhances understanding of channel coupling effects in nuclear fusion.

Abstract

Excitations of colliding nuclei during a nuclear reaction considerably affect fusion cross sections at energies around the Coulomb barrier. It has been demonstrated that such channel coupling effects can be represented in terms of a distribution of multiple fusion barriers. We here apply a Bayesian approach to analyze the so called fusion barrier distributions. This method determines simultaneously the barrier parameters and the number of barriers. We particularly investigate the $^{16}$O+$^{144}$Sm and $^{16}$O+$^{154}$Sm systems in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. The present analysis indicates that the fusion barrier distribution for the former system is most consistent with three fusion barriers, even though the experimental data show only two distinct peaks.