Influence of Nuclear Forces on the Coulomb Barrier in Heavy-Ion Reactions

Abstract

Holm and Greiner have shown the effect of nuclear diffuseness on the barrier against fusion of two heavy nuclei. We show that the major part of this effect is a lowering of the barrier because of the diffuseness alone. There is an additional change in the barrier, due to deformation effects, which may be either positive or negative depending on the relative importance of the Coulomb and nuclear parts of the potential.