Collisions between heavy nuclei near the barrier

Detailed information has recently become available on the reaction behaviour in very heavy nuclear systems close to the Coulomb barrier. Starting from an experimental study of the distribution of the reaction strength above and below the barrier, the dominant reaction channels of quasi-elastic and strongly-damped processes are examined. With decreasing incident energy, the sub-barrier collisions are increasingly dominated by quasi-elastic processes. From the division of internal excitation energy, new information is obtained on the nature of the dissipative processes. 15 refs., 4 figs. (author)