Distinguishing features of radioactive compound nucleus decays within the dynamical cluster-decay model

In this paper, we are interested to study the distinguishing features of the decaying radioactive compound nuclei ²⁴⁶Bk* and ²²⁰Th*, using the Dynamical Cluster-decay Model (DCM) with deformation β and non-coplanar degree-of-freedom Φ. ²⁴⁶Bk* and ²²⁰Th* have so-far been studied within the DCM, using quadrupole deformations (β_2i), 'optimum' orientations (θopt) of the two nuclei lying in the same plane (Φ=0o), which shows that there is a non-compound nucleus (nCN) content in the observed data. The first turning point R_a (equivalently, the neck-length ΔR in R_a=R₁+R₂+ΔR), which fixes both the preformation and penetration paths, is used to best fit the measured evaporation residue (ER) and fusion-fission (ff) cross sections, σ_ER, σ_ff, respectively, in ²²⁰Th* and ²⁴⁶Bk*, formed via different entrance channels. In this work, we subsequently add higher multipole deformations, the octupole and hexadecupole (β_3i, β_4i), 'compact' orientations θ_ci and Φ≠0°, and look for their effects on the nCN contribution predicted by the DCM calculations referenced above. (author)