Dynamics of 58Ni + 54Fe → 112Xe* reaction across the Coulomb barrier

The dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM) has been applied to study the decay of the 112Xe* compound nucleus formed in the massive heavy-ion reaction 58Ni + 54Fe at energies across the Coulomb barrier with Ec.m. ∼ 85-110 MeV. The calculations are done for spherical fragmentation as well as by including deformation and orientation degrees of freedom of the decaying fragments. DCM-based cross sections give a nice description of the experimental fusion excitation function σER, within one parameter fitting, the neck length parameter (ΔR), whose value remains within the range of nuclear proximity interaction. The barrier height corresponding to the neck length parameter brings into the picture the barrier modification which enables us to address the data particularly at below barrier energies. The role of excitation energy (or temperature), deformations, orientations, angular momentum and diffuseness parameter is investigated to understand the dynamics of the 58Ni + 54Fe reaction. Finally the N/Z dependence of the fragmentation structure of different compound systems formed via 58Ni beam (projectile) is explored. (orig.)