Structure information from fusion barriersS V S SASTRY and S SANTRA Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India Abstract. It is shown that the analysis of fusion barrier distributions is not always an unambiguous test or a `fingerprint' of the structure information of the colliding nuclei. Examples are presented with same fusion barrier distributions for nuclei having different structures. The fusion excitation functions for 16O+208Pb, using the coupled reaction channel (CRC) method and correct structure information, have been analysed. The barrier distributions derived from these excitation functions including many of the significant channels are featureless, although these channels have considerable effects on the fusion excitation function. However, a simultaneous analysis of the fusion, elastic and quasi-elastic channels would fix the structure and the reaction unambiguously. Keywords. :Heavy ion fusion; fusion barrier distributions; nuclear structure; coupled reaction channel calculations. Pacs No.: 25.70.Bc; 25.70.Jj; 24.10.Eq; 25.70.Hi; 21.60; 23.40.Hc. |