2006/02/22 by S. Misicu, H. Esbensen · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.112701
published as Phys.Rev.Lett. 96 (2006) 112701 · 4 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2006/02/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We propose a new mechanism to explain the unexpected steep falloff of fusion cross sections at energies far below the Coulomb barrier. The saturation properties of nuclear matter are causing a hindrance to large overlap of the reacting nuclei and consequently a sensitive change of the nuclear potential inside the barrier. We report in this letter a good agreement with the data of coupled-channels calculation for the 64Ni+64Ni combination using the double-folding potential with M3Y-Reid effective N-N forces supplemented with a repulsive core that reproduces the nuclear incompressibility for total overlap.