Comparison of cross sections for C + O reactions in the second regime of complete fusion

Kinetic energy spectra, angular distributions, and elemental yield distributions have been measured for the ¹² C + ¹⁶ O, ¹² C + ¹⁸ O and ¹³ C + ¹⁷ O reaction products over an energy range from 2 to 7 times the Coulomb barrier energy. A careful kinematic analysis of the evaporation residues and comparisons with statistical-model calculations show that fusion proceeds with full momentum transfer followed by a statistical decay of the compound nucleus. The competition between complete fusion process and peripheral reactions in the ¹² C + ¹⁶ O system is less important than for the ¹² C + ¹⁸ O and ¹³ C + ¹⁷ O reactions. The unexpectedly high ¹² C + ¹⁶ O complete fusion cross sections are related to the possible occurrence of a superdeformation of the ²⁸ Si compound nucleus.