Potential-energy surfaces for asymmetric heavy-ion reactions

We calculate the macroscopic potential energy of deformation as a function of mass asymmetry and distance between mass centers for shape configurations of interest in heavy-ion reactions. For the system³⁰⁰120 we also study the effect of adding microscopic shell and pairing corrections to the macroscopic potential energy. The shape configurations are generated by bringing together two separated spheres of unequal size. After the spheres touch the shapes are constructed by filling in the neck while keeping constant the radii of the end spheres, the nuclear density and the total nuclear volume. The macroscopic energy is calculated as the sum of a Coulomb energy and a nuclear macroscopic energy that takes into account the finite range of the nuclear force. For systems throughout the periodic table we display the calculated energy as a function of distance between mass centers and mass asymmetry in the form of contour maps. Some important features of the contour maps are the stationary points of the potential energy and how they change in character and location as functions of the nuclear system considered. For example, for light systems there is a maximum in the potential energy for symmetric shapes. As we move to heavier systems this peak in the potential-energy surface splits into two asymmetric peaks that are separated by a symmetric saddle point. This occurs when Z²/A ≈ 30 for the total system. As the systems become still heavier the peaks become more and more asymmetric. In heavy-ion reactions for which the asymmetry of the system is smaller than that corresponding to the peak, the smaller nucleus tends to suck up the larger one. For larger asymmetries the larger nucleus tends to suck up the smaller one. For heavy systems the binary fission saddle point is lower than the maximum in the one-dimensional interaction barrier. The penetrability calculated for the multidimensional potential-energy surface is therefore increased relative to that for the one-dimensional barrier. The microscopic shell and pairing corrections lower the potential energy for configurations in which the target and/or projectile are magic or nearly magic. This effect persists to somewhat inside the point of touching. These corrections also lower the energy near the ground state.