Actinide production from reactions of /sup 129,132/Xe with 248Cm

The authors have measured production cross sections for actinide nuclides formed in the reactions of 750 +/- 70 MeV 129Xe and 770 +/- 70 MeV 132Xe with 248Cm for purposes of studying the effect of different neutron numbers of the projectile in heavy ion induced reactions. Products that are formed through a large net transfer of nucleons between the projectile and target and those involving transfer of unequal number of protons and neutrons should be more sensitive to the N/Z ratio of the composite system, since the N/Z ratio is a rapidly equilibrated mode in deep inelastic reactions. The bombarding energies used correspond to 1.0 to 1.1 times the Coulomb barriers of the systems used. The cross sections for the production of Cf, Es, and Fm nuclides are compared with those from a similar 136Xe reaction wtih 248Cm. Cross sections for some Np, Pu, Am, Cm, and Bk isotopes were also measured in the 129Xe and 132Xe reactions and these results will be reported later