Traces of Landau-Zener transitions in the fusion cross section of heavy nuclei?

Nucleus-nucleus collisions with center-of-mass energies E_c.m. close to the Coulomb barrier are investigated within the framework of time-dependent two-center shell-model states. The influence of Landau-Zener transitions on the nucleus-nucleus potential is studied in detail as a function of E_c.m. Dynamical barrier shifts and barrier fluctuations are evaluated for central collisions of ⁹⁰Zr + ⁹⁰Zr, ⁹²Zr + ⁹²Zr, ⁹⁶Zr + ⁹⁶Zr and their effect on the fusion probability is discussed explicitly. While for ⁹⁰Zr + ⁹⁰Zr no modification of the barrier penetration is found a relative enhancement (reduction) of the fusion probability up to a factor of 4 is obtained for ⁹²Zr + ⁹²Zr and⁹⁶Zr + ⁹⁶Zr.