Nuclear Hexadecapole Deformation Effects on the Production of Super-Heavy Elements

We investigate the effects of the nuclear hexadecapole deformations on the interaction potentials between nuclei, the driving potentials and the fusion probabilities for some cold fusion reactions leading to super-heavy elements. It is found that nuclear hexadecapole deformations change significantly the structure of the driving potentials and the fusion probabilities for some reaction channels. (nuclear physics)