The role of orientation of nucleus symmetry axis in fusion dynamics Original Research Article

The dependence of the fusion excitation function on the orientation angles of the symmetry axis of deformed projectile- and target-nucleus relative to the beam direction is studied. The averaged over all orientations values of the fusion–fission cross sections obtained for 16O + 238U and 60Ni + 154Sm reactions are compared with the experimental data. The capture and fusion cross sections for the 16O + 238U reaction are nearly the same while those are different for the 60Ni + 154Sm reaction due to sufficient contribution of the quasifission events. The large values of the fusion cross section are obtained in the range 60°<αi<90° of the orientation angles of the projectile- and target-nucleus. This phenomenon is explained by the dependence of the intrinsic fusion and quasifission barriers on the orientation angles of reactants.