Classical description of low energy 16O + 16O collisions

The aim of this paper is to study the scattering of the two ground state 16O nuclei, using classical microscopic approach. Fusion cross-section (sigmasub(F)) for various incident energies, its energy variation with time, and also other aspects such as shape deformation in head-on collision, life-time of resonance-scattering etc have been studied. The present calculations indicate that for projectile energies of the order of 1-2 MeV per nucleon (low energies) classical microscopic calculations for heavy ion reactions seem to give satisfactory description. However, at very low energies (less than 1 MeV/nucleon) appreciable deviations are seen which may indicate the breakdown of classical approximations. (author)