Time-dependent mean field determination of the excitation energy in transfer reactions: application to the reaction $^{238}$U on $^{12}$C at 6.14 MeV/A

TL;DR

This paper introduces a time-dependent mean-field approach to estimate the excitation energy distribution in transfer reactions, specifically applied to the $^{238}$U + $^{12}$C system at 6.14 MeV/A, aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

The study develops a microscopic method to determine excitation energies in transfer reactions, accounting for different channels and fusion competition, validated against experimental and phenomenological models.

Findings

Excitation energies match experimental data when fusion competition is included.

The method effectively distinguishes excitation energies for different transfer channels.

Comparison with HIPSE model confirms reliability at higher energies.

Abstract

The internal excitation of nuclei after multi-nucleon transfer is estimated by using the time-dependent mean-field theory. Transfer probabilities for each channel as well as the energy loss after re-separation are calculated. By combining these two informations, we show that the excitation energy distribution of the transfer fragments can be obtained separately for the different transfer channels. The method is applied to the reaction involving a $^{238}$U beam on a $^{12}$C target, which has recently been measured at GANIL. It is shown that the excitation energy calculated with the microscopic theory compares well with the experimental observation, provided that the competition with fusion is properly taken into account. The reliability of the excitation energy is further confirmed by the comparison with the phenomenological HIPSE model at higher center of mass energies.