Examining barrier distributions and, in extension, energy derivative of probabilities for surrogate experiments

The energy derivatives of probabilities are functions suited to a best understanding of certain mechanisms. Applied to compound nuclear reactions, they can bring information on fusion barrier distributions as originally introduced, and also, as presented here, on fission barrier distributions and heights. Extendedly, they permit to access the compound nucleus spin-parity states preferentially populated according to an entrance channel, at a given energy. (authors)