Fusion reactions around the barrier for Be+238U *

Abstract

Abstract Fusion-evaporation cross sections of U( Be, 5n) Cm are measured over a wide energy range around the Coulomb barrier. These measured cross sections are compared with model calculations using two codes, namely HIVAP2 and KEWPIE2. HIVAP2 calculations overestimate the measured fusion-evaporation cross sections by a factor of approximately 3. In KEWPIE2 calculations, two approaches, namely the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation and the empirical barrier-distribution (EBD) method, are used for the capture probability; both of them properly describe the measured cross sections. Additionally, fusion cross sections of Be+ U measured in two experiments are applied to constrain model calculations further through three codes, i.e., HIVAP2, KEWPIE2, and CCFULL. Parameters in these codes are also examined by comparison with measured fusion cross sections. All the comparisons indicate that the KEWPIE2 calculations using the WKB approximation agree well with the measured cross sections of both fusion reactions Be+ U and the fusion-evaporation reaction U( Be, 5n) Cm. Calculations using the fusion code CCFULL are also in good agreement with the measured fusion cross sections of Be+ U.