Systematic study of quasifission characteristics and timescales in heavy element formation reactions

Abstract

Superheavy elements can only be created in the laboratory by the fusion of two massive nuclei. Mass-angle distributions give the most direct information on the characteristics and time scales of quasifission, the major competitor to fusion in these reactions. The systematics of 42 mass-angle distributions provide information on the global characteristics of quasifission. Deviations from the systematics reveal the major role played by the nuclear structure of the two colliding nuclei in determining the reaction outcome, and in hindering or favouring heavy element production.To form very heavy and superheavy elements (SHE), heavy-ion fusion reactions are used. Their cross sections can be significantly suppressed [1] by quasifission [2]. This dynamical non-equilibrium process results when the combined system formed after capture separates into two (fission-like) fragments in times ∼10 −20 s, before a compact compound nucleus is formed. The probability of quasifission (P QF ) can be very large, with the corresponding probability of compound nucleus formation (P CN = 1 -P QF ) being lower than 10 −3 in unfavourable cases. Understanding the competition between quasifission and fusion is thus very important in predicting the best fusion reactions to use to form new isotopes of heavy and super-heavy elements.A key quantity characterizing quasifission is its "sticking time" between capture of the two nuclei inside the entrance channel potential barrier [4] and breakup (scission). Quasifission mass-angle distributions (MAD) first measured at GSI in the 1980s [2,5] showed that quasifission timescales could often be shorter than the rotation time of ∼10 −20 s. However, subsequently only a few measurements [6,7] were made until recent years, when an extensive series of experiments (using the Australian National University Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility and CUBE spectrometer) were carried out [3,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The kinematic coincidence technique used in the measurements [2,3,17] provides direct information on the mass-ratio of the fragments at scission; thus, the data are represented in terms of mass ratio M R , rather than pre-or According to the characteristics of the MAD (minimum mass yield at symmetry, mass-angle correlation with peak yield at symmetry, and no significant mass-angle correlation), they are assigned as type MAD1, MAD2 and MAD3 respectively [3]. There is a clear correlation between the MAD class and the entrance channel charge product. Other entrance channel characteristics are important in determining the sticking times and MAD characteristics, including neutron richness [14,18], and shell structure including static deformation [11] and magic numbers [14].To improve our quantitative understanding of the role of shell structure in the dynamics of quasifission, we make an analogy with the liquid drop model approach to nuclear masses, in which localized shell effects can be quantified when the underlying smooth (liquid drop) trends are well defined. To define the smooth trends in ...

Quasifission Dynamics in the Formation of Superheavy Elements

“…This is usually the case for collisions of heavy nuclei, as shown first by measurements at GSI [2,8], and by later results from ANU [3][4][5][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Inter-relationships of different measurements, and background to the results presented here are given in recent conference proceedings [16][17][18][19][20]. Figure 1.…”