Geometrical effects in fusion cross sections for deformed nuclei

Full text: In collisions of two nuclei, due to the short range of strong interaction, the nuclear part of the nucleus-nucleus potential should be defined by the minimum distance between the nuclear surfaces. In contrast, in conventional calculations of fusion cross-sections and barrier distributions, this potential has been determined along the line joining the centers of the two nuclei. It was not clear to what extent accounting for the minimum distance is important when colliding nuclei are deformed. We performed calculations aiming to answer this question. The surface curvature correction to nucleus-nucleus potential is also included. These geometrical effects are shown to change the calculated cross-sections and barrier distributions by up to 50%. Since current experimental data have typical precision of 1% for the cross-sections and of 10% for the barrier distributions, accounting for these geometrical effects is necessary in data analysis and interpretation